Never Cry Wolf
by RosalynGlass
Summary: Caroline and her friends go to visit Caroline's cousin. They hope for a supernatural free year. But when their problems follow them and collide with Lydia's problems... So much for a relaxing vacation year. Post TW 3b and TVD 5
1. The Party

**A\N: the timeline of this story is pretty fudge, sorry about that, it's placed after the 3b of Teen Wolf and season 5 of the vampire diaries, though Damon and Bonnie didn't get stuck on the other side and the whole Original plot is out the window Klaus left for another reason.**

•

 **"A company of wolves,**

 **Is better than a company of wolves in sheep's clothing."**

 **-Anthony Liccione**

Caroline laughed as Bonnie and Elena sang horribly off key along with the radio.

Matt shook his head but he was smiling just like the rest of them. Even Damon couldn't hide his smirk.

It felt... Freeing. Leaving Mystic Falls, if only for the school year. And sitting in the old van Stefan had managed to find them for the trip Caroline felt, _light_ , for once the world wasn't sitting on their shoulders.

This was going to be their year off from the supernatural, just her, her friends and her cousin they were staying with.

"There it is," Bonnie pointed out the window at the town sign.

"We are officially in Beacon Hills, California!"

•••

Stiles sat at his computer scrolling through yet another useless website.

His phone started ringing, he would've ignored it but lately someone not answering the phone meant the person was dead.

"Hey?" He said, clicking on another link.

"Stiles, where are you?" Lydia demanded.

Oh shit! Was it already...? He looked at the clock. "On my way."

"No, you are sitting in your room on the internet or reading dusty old books."

"I'm about to be on my way-"

"Stiles! Get in your junk heap of a car and get over here."

"Hey, no need to insult the Jeep," he said, grabbing his jacket and heading downstairs.

"Sorry," she said in her unapologetic way. "I haven't seen her in years and she's bringing all her friends and I want you to meet her," she finished with a huff.

"I told you I'm on my way, I'm practically there." He got into his Jeep and turned the key. A strange rattling noise came from the engine.

"Stiles," she almost seethed. "Please tell me that is not what I think."

"I'll be there on time, I promise," Stiles was hoping that wasn't a complete a lie.

"You better," the line went dead.

He popped the hood and looked at the engine that was more duct tape than machinery.

"Okay..." He said. "Let's see what's falling apart today."

•••

They pulled up in front of the beach house they were staying at for the year.

Caroline got out and knocked on the door. It swung open and her cousin Lydia grinned at her. "Hey, Care."

"Hey!" Caroline threw her arms around her.

"We're all in the living room, come on in." She smiled and fell right into the role of hostess.

Matts eyes lingered on the red head. That was interesting, Caroline smiled, better than the Original Bitch any way.

Two guys and two girls sat in the room. All of them turned towards her as she and the rest of her friends walked in.

Lydia nodded towards a tall boy with dark hair and dark eyes. "This is Scott, and,' she gestured to the boy sitting next to him with lighter brown hair and green eyes. "That's Isaac," she nodded towards the Asian girl with the sparkly blue top. "Kira," she nodded towards the girl with the messy brown hair and suspicious eyes. "Malia-"

A scrawny boy came skidding around the corner, almost falling. "Sorry I'm late, are they-" he paused when he saw them finishing awkwardly. "Here?"

Lydia nodded to him. "And that's Stiles."

He gave a half wave, finding a seat near the brown haired girl, Malia.

"Anyway, guys," her cousin said to the group in the living room. "This is my cousin Caroline," she gestured to Matt. "That's Matt," she nodded at Elena and Bonnie. "Bonnie and Elena," she looked around. "Wheres Jeremy?"

Elena rolled her eyes. "He'll be here in a couple days."

Lydia didn't inquire further instead turned to the Salvatore's. "Drawing a blank here, these the new guys?"

Caroline nodded. "Stefan and," she gave Damon a distasteful look. "Damon."

Lydia nodded with a polite smile though Caroline could see the suspicion in her eyes from Caroline's tone.

Stefan looked on edge for a reason Caroline couldn't place. She decided to ignore it, looking around the room. 'You know when you said we were having a party I expected a keg and beer pong, you've lost your touch, cuz."

The doorbell rang and Lydia arched a brow. "You sure about that?"

•••

Lydia glared in disgust at the boy who fell in front of her, passed out.

Idiot, she rolled her eyes, stepping over him.

Stiles was sitting next to Isaac, that was weird. They usually avoided each other at all cost.

She dropped down next to them, glaring at the idiocy of the people crowding the room. "What are you guys whispering about?"

Stiles looked at her. "Why did you even through this party if you were going to be miserable the whole time?"

She frowned at him.

"And angry apparently," Isaac said.

She nodded towards the other room. "Care and her friends are having fun, that's why."

Stiles shook his head. "Well you can sit here and be an awkward loner with us."

"Speak for yourself," Isaac said standing and heading towards the blonde he'd been hanging around with at school.

"Okay... You can be an awkward loner with me," Stiles corrected.

"Sorry, I promised Caroline a round of beer pong, she apparently thinks she's the champion and I have to prove her wrong." Lydia stood grabbing a bottle of wine from some guys hand as he walked by. "This is expensive."

Stiles was giving her a look.

"Don't even start, Stiles, don't even start," she stalked away towards the living room.

•••

Stiles ran off to find Scott as soon as Lydia left.

He was talking to Kira in the kitchen, it was almost empty, good.

He nodded slightly at Kira before turning to Scott. "Isaac said there was something off about the new kids, did you get that at all or is he being a paranoid idiot?"

"No, he's right," Scott said. "We were just talking about it."

"Well? Do you want to explain to the person without super wolfy senses?" Stiles said.

"I don't know how," Scott said. "It's almost like they're werewolves but..." He shrugged.

"So you aren't sure there's anything actually wrong with them?" Stiles said hopefully.

"Are you saying you aren't immediately assuming they're all serial killers?" Scott said.

"Lydia really trusts them," Stiles said.

"Oh, that makes sense, you're trusting them for Lydia, I thought you were on drugs or something," Scott said.

"Scott! Are they werewolves or not?" Stiles tried to get the conversation back on subject.

Scott shrugged. "Not, I guess. I don't really know though..."

"But there's a chance there is nothing supernatural about them?"

"Yeah," Scott said. "They might be completely harmless."

A bloodcurdling scream came from the boathouse.

Scott and Stiles shared a look before rushing out of the house towards the boathouse, a girl stood over a body screaming well a boy lost the contents of his stomach into the lake.

"She's- she's dead!" The girl screeched.


	2. Bloody Leather

**A\N: can we just pretend they're all starting their senior year. Again sorry about the messed up timeline.**

 **•**

 **"Suspicion always haunts**

 **The guilty mind."**

 **-William Shakespeare**

Caroline heard the scream from her place at the diner room table where her and Lydia were playing beer pong.

They ran out the door towards the old boathouse, pushing past the other people who were gathered to look. The scrawny boy caught Lydia before she could go any closer to the body limp on the plank floor.

Caroline pushed down the urge to let her fangs drop, the dead girls eyes stared vacantly up at the ceiling her throat torn out.

The girl standing over the body was shaking and hyperventilating.

The scent of blood was pushing her senses into overdrive, she could here the boy Stiles saying something to Lydia. Like he was trying to calm her down.

Apparently it didn't work because Lydia screamed. A soul piercing sound that made Caroline wince, she could see Elena clutch her head at the edge of the crowd, Damon winced clenching his jaw. But other than them everyone seemed fine. Except... Scott stood next to Stiles his eyes shut tightly at the sound.

What the hell?

Please not more vampires, supernatural novels never explain how freaking annoying it is trying to keep them all from going on blood binges.

"Death," Lydia whispered. "A thousand years of death..."

Caroline swallowed hard. A thousand years...

Now that sounded familiar.

•••

Stiles heard Lydia breath the words. A thousand years of death, that was mildly terrifying.

She fell into his side, only semiconscious.

"Okay," Stiles pulled out his phone. "Someone call nine-one-one!" He called as he called the sheriff's office.

"Stiles?"

"Hey, dad, we have a problem, of the more... Preternatural persuasion." He said quietly.

"Damn it, where are you? Is everyone okay?"

"A girl's dead, we're at Lydia's house on the lake..." One of the guys that had come with Lydia's cousin was examining the wound on the girls neck like he was looking for something.

"Alright, stay where you are, don't do anything stupid or impulsive or anything else fitting your personality-"

"Got it." Stiles hung up.

"Scott," Stiles nodded towards the guy. "Keep an eye on the new guy, I'm going to take Lydia home."

Scott nodded.

Lydia still seemed a little out of it as they made their way to his Jeep.

"You could, you know, warn us when you're about to go all wailing woman," Stiles said casually as he opened the door.

"You should get a new car," Lydia grumbled as she slid into the passengers seat.

"Oh come on, now you just aren't trying," he said, shutting the door and walking around to his side to jump in.

"This was different..." Lydia murmured, closing her eyes and taking a shaky breath. "I've never felt so much hate and spite in a death..."

"You mean a killer had malicious intent? Shocking."

"Stiles," she looked at him. "Shut up, or the next murder will have even more malicious intent."

"Derek has been threatening to kill me for so long you'll have to do better than a vague threat and slight implication."

"One of these days I'm going to take your baseball bat and bash your head in with it."

"See? That was so much better," Stiles said gesturing with one hand.

Lydia chuckled softly before her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing deepened to the pace of sleep.

•••

Caroline hurried away from the crowd, pulling out her phone and scrolling through her contacts. She stopped by the edge of the lake finally finding the number she needed.

She listened to it ring, once... Twice... Three times... A fourth and it went to voicemail.

"Pick up your damn phone," she hissed before hanging up.

Stefan showed up next to her. "Do you have any guess who did this?"

"Did you notice how loud Lydia's scream was?" Caroline asked instead of answering.

"Yeah, it was ridiculously loud," Stefan said. "But do you have any idea who it was?"

"Damon?" She sassed instead of voicing her actual suspicion.

"I would think that too but he was with Elena the whole time..." Stefan shrugged.

"I don't know, apparently the universe doesn't think we deserve a year off," Caroline sighed.

He smiled. "Think it's just a crazy coincidence and us coming to town has nothing to do with this?"

"With our luck? No way in hell."

"That's what I thought too... I just hoped you would have a more optimistic view."

"Sorry, I'm living in the real world."

Sirens sounded in the distance. "Let's hope the police aren't on vervain."

•••

Scott watched the police pull up, Sheriff Stilinski pushed through the crowd to look at the dead girl.

He looked at Scott. "You know... _what_ did this."

"No, it's not a werewolf... I don't know what it is," Scott shrugged.

"That's real helpful, aren't super alphas supposed to know things like this?"

"I'm a true alpha," he whispered harshly. "And normally we don't scream things like that from the rooftop."

"Sorry I'm not up to date with werewolf etiquette," he muttered.

"I don't smell another wolf... So... Who knows?"

"You, I was really hoping you knew," he said.

"I do... Not. At all."

Stilinski sighed. "Great, guess we have to go about this in the human way."

"Ill go see if Isaac or Malia are picking anything up," Scott said turning and walking to the edge of the crowd where they stood.

Isaac was already shaking his head.

"Nothing?" Scott asked as he stopped next to him.

"Nothing," Isaac sighed.

"Leather," Malia shrugged.

"Helpful, isn't she?" Isaac drawled before walking away.m

"Leather?" Scott was grabbing at straws here but at this point... "What kind of leather?"

"One time, when I was still a coyote, I chased this amateur hiker through the woods," Scott frowned, she rolled her eyes. "I didn't kill him. But I did pull his shoe off. It smelled exactly like this."

"Do you remember where you left it?"

She nodded. "It was in my cave."

Scott grinned. "And everything from your cave is in evidence."


	3. Improper Investigation

**•**

 **"I thought I knew the world.**

 **I thought I knew myself.**

 **I thought I knew my dearest friend.**

 **But I knew nothing at all."**

 **Estrella deMadrigal**

 **Spain 1500**

Stiles wasn't surprised to see her parents weren't home. They never were.

Lydia trudged to the door. "I think I burst my own eardrums," she complained.

"Nah, maybe," he shrugged. "I don't know, guess it's possible."

She glared at him a moment before sighing. "Sorry I made you come to the party, you probably would've had more fun staying home, would've witnessed less brutal murder at least."

"But I would've ended up on some super weird site, might've joined a cult or something if I didn't have something better to do."

Lydia swung the door open. "Want to watch lame sitcoms?"

"That sounds way better than a murder party," Stiles said.

She laughed.

•••

"Sheriff," Scott tried to look normal as he hurried towards Sheriff Stilinski. "Sheriff!"

Stilinski looked at him. "You got something?"

"Maybe," Scott said. "But we need something from Malias cave."

The sheriff paused. "So you need something from evidence?"

"Yes," Scott said.

"You expect me to take something out of evidence and give it to a teenager?"

Scott paused for a long moment. "Yes...?"

Sheriff sighed. "You're sure this will help you figure out," he gestured to the body being loaded onto a stretcher. "This?"

Scott shrugged. "I'm not really sure, but it's worth a shot."

"Right," he sighed again and shook his head. "I'll just go break the law for a shot in the dark."

•••

Caroline paced outside the house, she dialed Lydia's number, it went straight to voicemail.

"Hey, are you okay? Call me when you can... Or I'll see you at school Monday. Just wanted to make sure you're okay... Bye."

She hung up.

"She okay?" Bonnie asked

"She didn't pick up," Caroline said.

"I'm sorry, I'm sure she's fine," Bonnie said setting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I know, just worried, she like fainted after seeing the body."

"Not to mention screamed her head off, it almost sounded like psychic-"

"Psychic? Who's psychic?" Elena cut in, coming to stand next to them.

"No one," Bonnie said. "Lydia's scream almost sounded like it was on a psychic frequency."

Elena frowned. "You guys don't think she's a witch do you?"

"No," Caroline said quickly. "We would know," she looked at Bonnie. "We would know right?"

"Maybe," Bonnie shrugged.

"She's not a witch," Damon cut into the conversation.

"How do you know?" Elena asked.

"I can smell it, she's human, every species has it's own scent," Damon said. "Newbies sometimes have a hard time telling them apart."

Caroline rolled her eyes at the newbie comment. "So she's human for sure?"

"Probably," he shrugged. "Might be masking her scent but, yeah, I'd place my bets on human."

Caroline nodded. "See? Everything's fine, she just freaked out because she saw the dead body."

Her friends, and Damon, seemed content with this explanation for the time being.

•••

Stiles barely paid any attention to the show, Lydia's laughter was way more entertaining than Dwight and Jim's snowball war.

She looked adorable snuggled up on the couch her hair a mess and her dress traded in for sweats and a T-shirt. She yawned, her eyelids fluttering as she attempted to keep them open.

After a moment they fell shut and she leaned back against his shoulder. Stiles froze, suddenly frightened to so much as breath.

After a few minutes his breathing started to sync with hers, slow and steady and sleep began to drag him under.

Until his phone rang and he jumped, Lydia jolting awake next to him.

He slid the answer button. "If you aren't about to tell me you've figured out who did it or watched Star Wars just hang up right-"

"Malia picked up a scent! It's a long shot but-"

"Where-?"

"Police station, fifteen minutes."

Stiles hung up jumping off the couch and pulling on his jacket.

"What is it?" Lydia demanded standing with him. "What did he find out?"

"Nothing yet," Stiles said almost falling over when he pulled on his shoes. "Malia got a scent."

"Let me get my shoes I'll come with you."

"No," he said. "You stay here."

She raised her brows at his tone.

"I'll tell you whatever we find out," he promised. "Just stay inside, please? Thanks."

He grabbed his keys and rushed out without waiting for a reply.

•••

Caroline stood in the guest room of the lake house she had claimed. She fell back on the bed with a sigh, it took insanely long for the police to get everyones statement. In Mystic Falls it was like murder was routine, here it frazzled people.

They had been here all of a day and someone was already dead. Caroline felt a headache coming on.

She debated taking a shower for a while before deciding to just go to sleep. As she crawled under the covers her phone buzzed with a text.

She stared at the screen for a long while before she slid open her phone to read the message from an unknown number.

All it was was an address and a time.

She thought about ignoring it, she didn't actually _know_ it was him. Except... She let her head fall back with a groan. Except she _did_ know.

She glanced at the simple text again and tried to ignore the small swell of excitement it invoked in her.

•••

Isaac woke up to the buzzing of his phone. He sighed grabbing the device and hitting the green button.

"What?"

"Get to the police station. We think we have something."

"Stiles, it's three in the goddamn morning."

"Get your wolfy ass out of bed and down to the station," Stiles demanded. "Now. I'll keep calling-"

Isaac hit the end button and slipped out of bed. He pulled on his shirt and glanced at the girl still sleeping soundly. It was probably better he wasn't here when she woke up anyway, he didn't want her getting the wrong idea about what this was.

When he got there the lights were off but the front door was open. Because that was safe.

He walked back to the sheriffs office, the only room with a light on.

He walked in to see the Stilinskis, Scott, and Malia.

"Why am I here?"

Stiles held up a torn up combat boot. "Do you know what brand this is?"

Isaac paused. "Sorry?"

"Well, I mean you spent the summer in Paris I thought you might have some idea-"

"You woke me up at three a.m., made me drive all the way to the station," his voice was dangerously calm. "To find out if I knew what brand of shoe that is?"

Stiles sighed. "Yeah I don't know why I thought a summer with Argent would make you useful."

Isaac lunged at him, intending to rip off a few sickly pale limbs, but Scott stepped in front of him. "Isaac, calm down."

He took a deep breath. "I am going home, and I am going to sleep and if anyone wakes me up before seven o'clock, they lose an internal organ." He turned and strode out.

He walked towards his car but before he could get to it a rag pressed over his face and he before he could react the chloroform filled his lungs and the world went black.


	4. Dark Conclusions

•

 **"No one is you**

 **And that is your power."**

 **Dave Grohl**

Lydia sat at a picnic table in the quad trying to get some studying in before school started. Sometimes supernatural problems seriously impeded her academic life.

A mangled leather boot was set on the table in front of her. She pulled her textbook away from it with a noise of disgust. "Stiles!" She complained.

"Do you know what this is?"

"Dirty?" Lydia suggested.

"The brand, Lydia."

She sighed looking it over. "I don't..." Her eye caught the logo in the sole and her mouth dropped open. "You destroyed a pair of John Elliott boots?"

"No, Malia did," Scott said. "Where do they make these?"

"Italy."

The boys stared at her for a long moment.

"Are you kidding me?" Stiles finally said.

"No, they're expensive too. Upside of three hundred dollars expensive."

"Great, at least we know our killer has good taste," Stiles sat next to her, glancing at the open textbook. "You're studying?"

"Yeah, I got some done last night before the party but I just thought I'd go over it one more time before the quiz."

Both of them froze. "Quiz?"

"Yeah, it's Monday, we have a quiz in history." Lydia rolled her eyes. "We have one every year."

Stiles head fell onto the table with a thunk. "We're screwed on so many levels."

Lydia laughed. "We've got a few minutes, I'll help you guys go over some of this."

•••

Isaac woke slowly, it took him a moment to remember what had happened, he sat up. His hands were tied behind him, his legs bound to the chair he sat in, and a sack was over his head.

"Not this again," Isaac groaned.

"You're awake, good," Argent's voice said from somewhere in front of him.

"I thought we already did this," Isaac said.

"This is something new," Argent promised. "I want to test your werewolf senses."

"Of course," he sighed. "Are the zip ties really necessary?"

"Not really," he said.

"What exactly is this little exercise teaching me?"

"To watch your surroundings for one," he snapped. "You didn't even hear me walk up behind you. If it was another hunter you'd be dead."

"I just woke up-"

"You need to be on your guard every minute of everyday, you already have a target on you back being a werewolf but now you're a hunter and your own kind will see you as a traitor. You can't let anyone take you off guard."

"I'll be more careful," he promised.

"You better be," Argent said.

"What's the exercise?"

"We're going to see if you can really use those werewolf senses."

Isaac heard glasses clinking. "Of course I can use them."

"To what extent? Could you pick up someone's scent in a burning building?"

Isaac opened his mouth but nothing came out. Could he? "I... don't know."

"That's what I thought, so we're testing the theory."

The sound of liquid spilling across the floor came and a second later the smell of gasoline hit him. "Please tell me you aren't actually setting the building on fire?"

"Not today."

"How reassuring."

•••

Caroline felt like she was failing. She should be making a good impression her first day at a new school. It was her senior year! She had to make this count, she should be enjoying it.

But instead she sat staring at the clock tapping her pencil impatiently against her notebook.

Her aunt was talking about something, from the few words she caught it sounded pretty important.

Lydia waited until her mother turned to the board to give Caroline a hard kick under the lab table.

She jumped slightly focusing again on Aunt Natalie who shot her a reproving look, it must have been pretty obvious she was spacing.

When the bell rang she practically ran out of class. She only had an hour to bitch him out, and she planned on using every second of it.

"Care!"

Damn it!

She turned and gave her cousin a tight smile. "Yeah?"

Lydia arched a brow. "Aren't you going to have lunch with us?"

"I already promised I'd meet a friend," Caroline said, ignoring the guilt at ditching her the first day. "Tomorrow, I swear."

"Okay," she shrugged. "Have fun."

Oh, she definitely wouldn't.

•••

"What do you smell?"

Isaac sighed. "Gasoline."

"What else?"

"Nothing-"

"Focus!"

He took a deep breath, letting his other senses fall to normal level. But the only scent he could pick up...

"Sage?"

"Good," he heard Argent start pacing. "What else?"

It only took him a moment this time. "Cinnamon?"

Argent pulled the sack off his head and he saw the candles burning on a table, the floor drenched in gasoline around it. Well that was definitely a fire hazard.

"No offensive," Isaac said. "But you might want to rethink your teaching methods."

•••

Caroline walked towards the small coffee shop, her anxiety and excitement growing with every click of her heels against the sidewalk.

She paused at the door, taking a deep breath to settle her nerves before pushing into the shop.

She crossed her arms, looking around but not seeing him.

If that dumbass _forgot_ she was going to- that's when her eyes caught on the corner booth and a smirk that made her want to kill something.

She stalked to the booth and sat down on the bench across from him. "What the hell do you think you're doing here?"

"What, no 'hello'?"

She grit her teeth. "Hello, Klaus."

•••

She hadn't stopped sulking since her cousin ditched them, Stiles hadn't seen many things that could upset Lydia Martin but family always seemed to be a sore spot.

"So I think our history teacher already hates me," Stiles said.

"Maybe it's because you don't know how to shut your mouth," she replied casually.

"Or it's because she knows her shoe tapping is annoying and doesn't like that I called her on it."

Scott shook his head at his best friends antics while Lydia rolled her green eyes.

"I'm just saying-"

Kira running to the picnic table they sat at cut off whatever he was about to say. "Guys! I found something."

"You did?" Stiles asked genuinely surprised she'd managed to get information when he couldn't.

"Yeah, I was thinking about how strange the wound seemed, it was obviously a bite but it looked nothing like a wolf bite, so I started there. I got onto this paranormal page and posted a picture of it-"

"You posted a picture of a murder scene?"

"You can't even tell who it is. Anyway, I got a lot of the normal responses, you know wolf, demon, one girl said it looked like a cougar attack, but then someone sent me a link to these public records of this town in Virginia and guess what I found?"

"More animal attack cases?"

"Yeah, all closed but no actual investigation. Except one, the morgue reported the body completely drained of blood, but get this, there was no significant amount of blood at the scene."

Stiles grinned. "You know what this means?"

"Please don't say it," Lydia sighed.

His grin only grew.

"Seriously, don't," Scott warned.

"What is he about to say?" Malia said looking as confused as always.

"He isn't going to say anything," Lydia warned.

"We're hunting _vampires_!" Stiles pumped his fist in the air.


	5. Live On In Memory

•

 **"I'm sorry that you are**

 **One of the pretty things in life**

 **I've vowed to push away."**

 **-William C. Hannan**

Isaac walked onto the quad in time to hear Stilinski say they were hunting vampires.

"Since when are vampires a thing?" Isaac said sitting next to Lydia.

"Since never, Stiles is speculating," Lydia explained.

"We might want to listen to him," Scott said. "I mean he did guess it was Matt controlling Jackson and we ignored him... What if this is like that?"

"Thank you," Stiles said. "At least someone understands my genius should not be questioned."

"I mean I'm going to question you, I don't really think it's vampires but it is possible," Scott looked at Stiles seriously. " _Possible_. We don't get carried away with possibilities."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say," Stiles said before scrambling off.

"What is he doing?" Kira asked.

"Something stupid probably," Isaac said, taking the bread off Stiles abandoned food tray.

•••

"Now what are you doing here?" Caroline demanded.

"How have you been?" he shot back.

"Don't play games."

"It's only a question."

"Fine," she grit out. "Now why don't you answer my question?"

"I don't see its relevance, I suppose."

"Relevance? It's the whole reason I'm here!"

He leaned back in the booth, shrugging. "What concern is it of yours?"

"You promised-!"

"I promised to leave Mystic Falls and allow you to live your life as you please," he said. "I did. I had no idea you were here until last night-"

"It was you-"

Of course that was her first assumption. "No, it was Kol."

"Kol? He definitely died."

"Which is exactly why I'm here, to find someone to bring him back."

"Judging by the mangled corpse I'd guess..."

"I was successful."

"Good for you," she muttered.

He suppressed a smile. "Of course I can't say I'm sorry you're here."

"Of course," she crossed her arms and gave him a stubborn look. "So I'm supposed to believe you just happened to find a witch in my cousins home town?"

"You can believe whatever the bloody hell you want, but if you knew anything about this town you would know I'm telling the truth."

She arched a brow. "Care to explain or are you just trying to be annoying?"

This time he couldn't help the smile that came. "Beacon Hills is a literal beacon."

She stared at him for a moment, her face blank. "So... are you trying? Or does being infuriatingly vague just come naturally to you?"

"There is a great deal of supernatural energy in this town, it comes from a tree that has certain magical properties that attract all sorts of monsters," he smirked.

"A magic tree?"

"Yes, a sacred spot to the Druids," he explained.

"Druids? Like burn virgins alive Druids?"

"Something like that," he said, watching her think it over.

"But didn't that religion end like way back with Julius Caesar?"

"Augustus Caesar outlawed it, called it barbaric and inhuman, but that doesn't mean it completely died out."

"Great," Caroline sighed. "So now that you have your homicidal brother back will you be leaving?"

"I don't think so, love," he smiled. "I've taken quite a liking to this place."

•••

Stiles walked into the coffee shop, he knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight with this new development, his life had been a constant cycle of caffeine and insomnia for weeks, and since the school cafeteria didn't sell coffee he'd been coming here a lot lately.

He was waiting for the barista to make his coffee when he saw Lydia's cousin in the corner booth arguing with someone, he couldn't see the mans face from this angle but he could see Caroline's, she got the same look as Lydia when she was pissed off.

He shouldn't eavesdrop, Lydia would kill him if she found out... But something about these people had been bothering him.

The booth next to theirs was close enough to the counter that it wouldn't be strange of he sat there while he waited. Luckily Caroline didn't notice him.

"You can't stay," Caroline practically growled.

"Why not? I made no promises concerning this place, it's no fault of mine you chose to spend your year here," Stiles heard an extremely British voice say.

"I will put a white oak stake through your heart," she hissed.

 _Stake?_ Stiles had been entertaining the idea but...

"Wouldn't be the first time you tried," the man replied.

"Screw you," Caroline said.

"You already have, love, and gloriously I might add."

Oh shit, he should _not_ be listening to this...

Stiles heard coffee slosh and the sound of someone slamming a coffee cup onto the diner table before Caroline stood and stormed out, too angry to notice Stiles.

The man stood and headed for the door as well, and Stiles saw what had happened, Caroline had thrown her coffee on him.

He almost laughed, it was such a Lydia thing to do, but from the murderous look on the mans face he guessed that would result in reports of his mutilated corpse, he'd save his dad some work and just keep his mouth shut.

As he walked away Stiles happened to glance at his shoes and his heart stuttered at the pair of grey combat boots. John Elliott combat boots.

His name was called and he took his drink and hurried out of the shop. This was just freaking perfect, he had eaves dropped on Caroline and now he had to explain to Lydia that her cousin might be sleeping with a murderer vampire.

•••

Scott went straight to the animal clinic after school, Stiles in tow, he had been oddly quiet since he disappeared at lunch.

Deaton was with a client when they got there so Scott went about his work, waiting for the chance to talk with him about Stiles theory. Stiles wasn't as patient, tapping his fingers on the armrest of his chair and bouncing his leg with the occasional impatient sigh.

Finally the clinic was empty and Stiles and Scott went to the back room where Deaton was checking on the old cat that had been brought in the night before.

"Can we ask you something?"

"Does it have anything to do with the murder at the lake last night?"

Scott wasn't surprised Deaton already knew, he always seemed to know. "Stiles has this crazy theory-"

"It's not crazy, you're a _werewolf._ "

"He thinks it was vampires," Scott finished.

Deaton gave them a concerned look. "Did you see something?"

"No, but the wound looks like someone bit out the girls throat, and Lydia screamed and then said 'a thousand years of death' that sounds pretty vampirey. Unless we're dealing with another damn nogitsune, in which case I am just moving out of this town."

"It's possible, though the mention of a thousand years is... worrying."

Scott frowned. "Worrying?"

Deaton went back to the examination room, pulling an old book from the shelf under the windows. "I've heard a lot of different versions of the same legend, but in every variation the origin of vampires is always said to be roughly a thousand years ago."

"Are you saying Lydia predicted the first vampire being here?" Scott really didn't want that to be the case.

"Maybe," he set the open book on the examination table, the page had an obscure illustration of swords and spilled wine glasses. "The story is a witch lost her child tragically to supernatural forces, werewolves to be specific, so overcome with grief she swore to make her other children invincible, immortal. She used human blood for the spell, calling on the sun and the sacred tree for eternal life... Hid it in their wine then drove swords through their hearts, when they awakened from death they were forced to drink blood to complete the transformation.

"But everything has a consequence, the sacred tree had given them life and could likewise take it away, the sun had given them their strength but it could make them weak as well. Since saving her children from the wolves was how it all started, to every vampire after them the bite of a werewolf was poison, and as she was helpless to save her child, every vampire was helpless to save themselves."

"Dark," Stiles commented.

"Not as dark as the rest of the story," Deaton assured.

"Oh goody."

"She thought the blood they drank after death was all that would be needed but the hunger only grew. The first full moon after the spell one of her sons killed a human, supposedly triggering the werewolf curse."

Scott shook his head slightly the whole story making his head spin. "But that's not how it works."

"Sometimes it is, there are wolves like Derek, he was born with his abilities, they came to him naturally. Others have the gift buried deep within their blood, locked away until they experience their first kill, unleashing the beast hidden inside. And then there are the ones like you, who have the gift given to them."

"Yes, yes, some are born into greatness, some achieve greatness, others have greatness thrust upon them, explanation enough?" Stiles said making a moving on gesture with his hand. "The story, the guy killed someone...?"

"The transformation began and she realized he was much too powerful, that nature demanded balance and he was unmatched by any."

"Why weren't his siblings like him?" Scott questioned, too curious to not interrupt.

"He was different, a child born out of wedlock. She had hoped he would never have to take a life and her secret would never be revealed, but when it was she decided he couldn't be allowed to have so much power, she cursed him, locked away his wolf for the rest of his immortal life."

Damn, Scott couldn't imagine having his wolf side ripped away from him. Once upon a time he had wanted nothing more than to be normal again, but now it was a part of him, and losing it would be like losing an arm or a leg.

"So she took his wolf and... What? He got angry and decided to become a serial killer?" Stiles smarted off.

"No, they attempted to live their lives... But the blood lust became to powerful and eventually they all gave into their predator instincts. Seeing her children had become a greater evil than the wolves she wished to protect them from she knew she had to destroy the monsters she had created. She made her husband a vampire, powerful enough to hunt and kill their children, one last spell to put an end to everything, but her husband, after finding out her son was not his, was sent into such a rage he ripped her heart from her chest, and he too was a killer. The children burned the tree and destroyed the only weapon their father could use against them, making them truly invulnerable."

Stiles whistled. "That has to make Thanksgiving awkward."

He just couldn't help it, could he? Scott sighed. "Why have you never told me about vampires?"

"There are many... _unnatural_ creatures in this world, to try to tell you about all of them at once, it would only worry you," Deaton explained

Stiles laughed. "Right, much easier to wait until they murder someone in the town."

Deaton looked ready to reply when the door in the entrance waiting room was pushed open. Deaton and Scott shared a look before going to see who was there.

A girl around sixteen stood in the waiting room, dried blood decorating the left side of her face, her dark hair a tangled mess, and the white gown she wore drenched from the rain. She looked at them with desperation. "Is Alan Deaton here?"

Deaton stepped forward. "That would be me."

The girl smiled, looking almost delirious from relief, then her eyes fell shut and she fell to the ground.


	6. Harvest Girl

•

 **"It was one spark and it was enough**

 **To make me fall in love with you."**

 **-Sonya Chloé**

Stiles watched the girl collapse, Deaton hurried to her side to check her pulse. Scott's eyes flashed red for a moment as he said, "She's still breathing."

Deaton nodded. "Help me get her in the back."

Scott picked her up, setting her on the table. She looked dead, her alabaster skin speckled with blood, on the metal table under fluorescent lights she looked like a corpse in a morgue.

"What's wrong with her?" Stiles asked.

Scott took her hand, and Stiles watched black veins spread up his arm as he took her pain. "Exhaustion."

Deaton nodded. "We need to let her rest."

"Do you know who she is?"

"Not a clue," Deaton said. "But she obviously knows who I am."

Stiles raised his brows. "So...?"

"So?"

"So how long do we have to wait?"

"She won't be waking up for hours, not until tomorrow at least."

"But she could know something! She's _covered_ in blood! Someone was murdered this is sort of extremely important," Stiles said, looking at Scott to back him up.

"He's right," Scott said. "I doubt we could wake her up if we tried."

Now Stiles really wouldn't be sleeping tonight. She looked like she just walked off the set of a horror movie!

"Unless..." Deaton looked at Scott thoughtfully.

"Unless?" Stiles urged him on.

"You could try to take more of her exhaustion, at least enough for her to talk to us."

Scott shrugged. "If you think it'll work."

"I think it's worth a try," Deaton said.

Scott set his hand over the girls and once again took her pain. Stiles watched as the girl regained some color, her skin no longer the deathly pale while Scott started looking tired. It wasn't until Scott looked ready to drop that the girls eyes fluttered open.

"How are you feeling?" Deaton asked softly.

"What's with the blood?" Stiles asked bluntly.

"Stiles," Scott shot him a reproving look.

Her hand brushed across her cheek absently. "Someone from my coven."

"Coven?" Stiles frowned. "You're a witch? Like broomsticks and pointy hats?"

She gave him a disgusted look before turning to Deaton. "Marcel said you would help me."

Deaton frowned at the name. "Of course, though I'm not sure what I could help you with that he couldn't."

"I just need somewhere safe," the girl said.

"So you chose Beacon Hills? A plus decision making." Stiles said.

She turned angry eyes on him. "Is he human?"

"Yes, he's actually a good person under all the sarcasm and obnoxious impluses," Deaton said.

Stiles wasn't sure if he was defending or insulting him.

"What happened to your coven? Did someone attack you guys or something?" Scott asked.

"Or something," she muttered.

Deaton crossed his arms. "You're from the New Orleans coven?"

She nodded, her head hanging as if she were ashamed. Were they bad witches or something?

"They tried to perform a Harvest, didn't they?" Deaton looked concerned.

Tears spilled down the girl cheeks as she nodded.

"What's that?' Stiles prompted when it appeared they weren't going to explain.

Deaton sighed scrubbing a hand over his face tiredly. "It's a ritual that makes the coven more powerful."

"At the expense of four of their own," she finished.

"Wait." Stiles held up his hands. "Do you guys mean... They sacrificed four girls? Sacrifice like of the murder variety?"

She rolled her eyes. "Is there a different kind?"

"I don't know, that's totally fricked up! They killed four people!"

"They tried to," she said darkly.

"The Harvest wasn't completed?" Deaton questioned.

"Marcel found out, he tried to stop it... He could only save me, three of my sisters had their throats slashed."

"I'm sorry,' Scott said softly.

She smiled sadly. "We were naïve, we thought being chosen for the Harvest was such an honor."

"So he saved you and sent you here?" Stiles guessed.

She shook her head. "The Harvest was months ago, but something happened a few days ago... They almost got to me and he decided it was too dangerous for me to stay."

Deaton nodded. "Now that it's started they'll do anything to complete it."

"Why did you agree to this thing in the first place?"

"They told us we would go to sleep for a year then come back, powerful and with the wisdom of the ancestors. It was just supposed to be a cut on our palm to put us to sleep, then Abigail kneeled on the alter and they slit her throat," rage and grief flashed in her eyes. "They lied about the ritual, they could have lied about us coming back, and I wasn't going to die for them."

"They were supposed to come back from the dead?" Stiles asked.

"That's what they told us," she said.

"So, was there like a specific spell or something to bring them back?" This could fix everything, he could finally make it right.

"Whatever you're thinking, forget it," she said. "I don't think they ever planned on bringing us back, and even if they did witches don't go to the same place as humans."

Disappointment crashed through him, but this still meant there might be a way...

"Well in a year you'll know, right? If the other girls come back it means they were telling the truth," Scott said, ever the optimist.

"That's not how it works," she said quietly. "When one girl is sacrificed, the next absorbs her power, then the next until the last girl holds the power of all four, only when she dies is the sacrifice complete and the process of rebinding with the ancestors may begin."

"The other three girls won't come back if you don't go through with the ritual?" Stiles said.

"None of us were coming back anyway," she seethed. "They're all liars! We were dying so they could have the ancestors power."

Stiles didn't want to judge, but if dying meant there was a chance of bringing back three of his friends... he would take that gamble.

"You can stay as long as you need," Deaton said.

She looked away from Stiles to Deaton and her gaze softened. "Thank you."

"Oh, by the way, I'm Scott," his friend held out his hand before nodding to him. "That's Stiles."

She shook his hand. "Davina."

•••

Davina was one stupid question away from slapping him, but she would take Stiles insensitivity to Scotts pity.

It was quickly becoming hard to breathe, talking about the Harvest always did this...

"I.. I need some air," she slid off the cold metal table and hurried out the door. She took afew deep breathes of the cold night air to try to calm down.

The rain had stopped and the moon shone brightly in the dark sky.

She settled on the cement step in front of the door, her eyes flicking over the parking lot and settling on the small rose bush across the lot.

The dead plant held a few remains of once beautiful roses.

Davina stood and on impulse drifted toward the plant. She kneeled down next to it and let her fingertips run across the wilted petals and watched as they flushed a dark red under touch, green ran down the stem and gave it a second chance to grow.

She felt a peaceful smile touch her lips as she saw the good these powers could do.

•••

Kol walked down the road, this town was dead at night. He still felt the hunger carving into him despite having gone through his siblings entire supply of blood bags. Unfortunately the people in this town were slightly smarter than those in Mystic Falls and nobody seemed to be out at this time of night.

He wasn't supposed to kill anyone, he'd only been alive a day and Nik had already threatened to dagger him, but he doubted his next donor was going to survive. If he could find one.

He sighed about to turn back when he saw the door to a building, a veterinary office according to the sign, opened and a girl walked out. Perfect, he'd have to thank her for being such a lamb before he killed her.

She looked tired, and... hurt. Not physically, but the emotional kind of pain that made a person look older than they were. He was quite familiar with that kind of pain.

Before he could move she stood and walked across the parking lot, kneeling next to a dead plant.

What the hell was she...? Her fingers ghosted over the dead flower and he watched it come back to life. She looked positively ethereal kneeling there in a white gown bathed in moonlight.

She was so beautiful.

She looked so _alive_.

A soft smile touched her lips, and he felt an almost physical pain as the walls he'd spent a thousand years building around his heart broke apart.

He stumbled back, turning and hurrying away from the little witch, and for the first time since being brought back he wasn't thinking about the hunger.


	7. The Suspect

•

 **"All we see or seem**

 **Is but a dream within a dream."**

 **Edgar Allen Poe**

Stiles fell into the chair next to Lydia, his head thumping down on the desk.

She arched a brow. "Long night."

"I'm done with this towns supernatural bullshit," he muttered.

Her face contorted with worry. "Did something happen?"

"So much happened it's painful," Stiles lifted his head and looked at her.

Caroline walked into the classroom settling into a seat next to that Stefan boy. Stiles paused. "I'll tell you at lunch."

Lydia frowned, strange. "Alright."

Elena walked quickly into the room, clearly trying to look calm but Lydia could see the panic on her face as she whispered something to Caroline before practically dragging her cousin out of the room.

Lydia usually respected others privacy but worry for her cousin was beginning to take root in her mind. She looked at Scott, nodding slightly towards the door.

He nodded, his head tilting a bit as he listened. He frowned before he mouthed "lunch" to her.

•••

Hayley walked through the woods, leaves crunching under her shoes. She wrapped her arms around herself trying to fight the chill in the air, apparently California wasn't always sunny and warm.

New Orleans had been a waste of time, not only had she found nothing on her family she had almost been killed by a group of vampires.

Stupid lying hybrid.

But on the bright side, she had heard something hopeful on the way. Supposedly there was this magic tree in a small town in California, it could show you things... Tell you things.

Maybe it was a long shot but at this point she'd try anything.

But unfortunately she had been trudging through the woods for hours and had yet to find a magical tree that knew all her secrets.

She thought back to what the girl had said... The Nemeton calls to you, you don't find it unless it wants you to.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath knowing she looked like a complete idiot as she spoke softly. "I need your help... Please, help me..."

A sound like whispering started in her ears and she turned toward the sound seeing a few yards away half hidden behind two other trees a large stump. She drifted towards it, the whispering growing louder the closer she got.

She reached forward slowly, the whispers roared in her ear as she set her palm on the wood. "Show me them," she murmured. "Please."

The whispers grew even louder and she almost heard something...

"I don't know who you are, nor why you're here," the whispers cut off as someone behind her spoke. "But I suggest you leave before something unfortunate happens."

She turned with a growl. "Something unfortunate like you dying of a wolf bite?"

"You only have so long to leave," he warned.

She narrowed her eyes. "You don't scare me."

Before she could move she was flat on her back his hand cutting off her airway, her head hitting the flat top of the Nemeton and she felt blood seeping through her hair. She clawed at his wrist, her nails effective only in drawing blood.

She didn't notice when a drop of her blood hit the Nemeton, or the drop of his that hit a second later, but they were both dragged into the vision because of it.

•••

Caroline sat with Stefan, Elena, Matt, and Bonnie.

She sighed. "That's not good, I promised Lydia I'd sit with her today-"

"Caroline, aren't you even a little bit worried?" Stefan cut in.

She probably should've been, but she had already assumed that if Kol and Klaus were here the other Originals wouldn't be far. So it was no surprise when Elena said she ran into Elijah. Literally, she was out for a morning run and crashed into the stoic Original brother.

"About Lydia being pissed? Yeah, see you guys." She grabbed her bag and left the empty classroom they were talking in.

•••

Lydia listened to Scott and Stiles recount the events of the night before.

"They wanted to sacrifice her?" Lydia arched a brow.

"Yes Lydia! It happens too often for you to question this," Stiles said.

She held up her hands. "Not questioning, just disturbed."

"There is something else..." Stiles said nervously.

"Do tell," Lydia said with exaggerated interest.

"Yesterday, I went to that coffee shop, you know the one with the weird designs on the cups-"

"Yes, could we get past the unimportant details?" Lydia made a moving on gesture.

"So I was waiting for my coffee and... I noticed Caroline there..."

"Yeah, she was meeting a friend."

"Yeah... Well the thing is she looked really upset, so, uh, I kinda..."

Rage hit her when it clicked what he was trying to say. "You did _not_ listen to my cousins private conversation."

"Yeah... Sorry?"

She smacked his arm. "Sorry doesn't begin to cover it! That's a complete invasion of privacy-"

"But I heard something-"

"You shouldn't have heard anything, Stiles!"

"But I did and I think you should hear it too-"

"I don't want to-"

"I think she was talking to a vampire!"

Lydia paused. "Why do you think that?"

"She said, and I quote, 'I will put a white oak stake through your heart'."

Lydia swallowed hard, worry for her cousin drowning out her anger at Stiles. "That doesn't prove anything."

Stiles sighed. "When he left... He was wearing John Elliott boots."

"So? A lot of people have shoes from them, I have a pair of shoes from them. I'm not automatically involved, why should he be?"

"Alright, Lydia, calm down," Stiles said. "Maybe he's not involved, I just don't think we should dismiss him as a suspect."

"Why would Caroline know a vampire?" Lydia demanded.

"Why do you know werewolves?" Scott challenged.

Lydia growled in frustration. "She's a good person."

"Sometimes good people get into bad situations," Scott said. "We know that better than anybody, and... I did hear something worrying this morning. But maybe you're right, maybe this is all just a big coincidence."

"What's a coincidence?" Caroline asked as she sat next to Lydia.

"Stiles being a smartass and him failing the quiz yesterday," Scott lied, something they'd all become exceptional at this past year.

Caroline smiled. "A coincidence, huh?"

"Told you!" Stiles said. "Another teacher has it out for me."

Lydia smiled slightly but her mind was racing with every possible, horrible situation her cousin could've gotten herself into.

•••

Elijah stood in a seemingly unending room, fluorescent lights glowed above and directly in front of him was the Nemeton.

He heard a slight noise and turned to see the overly confident werewolf standing next to him. She didn't look away from the Nemeton, slowly she drifted closer. He felt the same impulse though he wasn't sure why.

He stepped forward, setting a hand on what was left of the ancient tree.

Voices started whispering loudly, all speaking too quickly to distinguish what they were saying. The noise continued to rise, becoming almost painful. When it was becoming unbearable a vision hit him, it was the werewolf, though she looked significantly younger, she stood on the shore of a lake, her dark hair plastered to her pale face as she stared down at another girl that was lying much too still.

She started shaking her head, her hand covering her mouth as she stumbled back. Tears filled her eyes as sirens sounded close by.

She stood there until two paramedics came running. One of them dropped down next to the girl, checking for a pulse that obviously wasn't there, he shook his head slightly to the other paramedic who tried to ease the wolf away from the dead girl.

"No!" The sound of her scream brought Elijah out of the vision.

The voices still hissed in his ear, but now he could hear bits and pieces of what they were saying, and it was more than enough to get his attention.

 _Protect her,_ one whispered

 _Family,_ another hissed.

 _Redemption,_ was the last thing he heard before everything went black.


	8. Suspicion From the Guilty

•

 **"We are here to laugh at the odds**

 **And live our lives so well**

 **That death will tremble to take us."**

 **Charles Bukowski**

Lydia caught up to Scott after school, catching him just before he left. "Scott!"

He paused, taking off his helmet. "Yeah?"

"What did you hear?" Lydia asked.

Scott looked hesitant though he obviously knew what she was talking about. "Elena said something about this guy... She called him an Original."

"Does that mean anything?" Lydia asked, did Scott know something he wasn't saying?

"I would say no, but Deaton told us this legend about this first vampires... And after your prediction and Stiles overhearing Caroline, it's getting more and more likely."

"What's more likely?" Couldn't he just explain? The more vague things he said the more flustered Lydia got.

"That they aren't just vampires... They're the first."

She stared at him. "Please tell me you aren't saying what I think you're saying?"

"We're dealing with the first vampires in existence," Scott clarified. Of course he could give a straight answer when she didn't want one.

"And you think Caroline has something to do with this?"

Scott gave her an apologetic look.

"What exactly did you hear?"

"Elena said she ran into someone named Elijah, Caroline told her not to panic and Elena said, 'how can I not panic there's an Original in town'."

Lydia closed her eyes for a moment before walking away. What the hell had Caroline gotten herself into?

•••

Caroline had gone back to the lake house after school, she had three hours to waste before she had to meet Lydia for dinner. She sat on the docks, leaning against one of the posts and enjoying the quiet.

At least she was until he showed up. "Enjoying your day, love?"

"Go away, Klaus," she said without bothering to look away from the dark water.

"You're still angry? We had a spat," she could hear the smile in his voice and it only made her angrier. "I'm already over it."

"That's funny considering I was the one who was insulted."

"Well technically you were complimented," he said. "But I regret my choice of words all the same."

"Wow, that was almost an apology," she sniped.

She heard him chuckle though she still refused to look at him. "Is this going to be a repeat of senior year? You just showing up at the worst possible times and destroying any chance I have of having a healthy relationship with someone else?"

"Probably, or you could save us both the trouble and stop pretending you haven't already told me, and shown me, how you feel."

She cupped her hands and splashed a handful of lake water on him, he jumped back to avoid the water and managed to lose his footing. She gave a shocked laugh as he fell off the dock into the lake.

She waited for him to come up yelling and cursing and she got slightly concerned when he didn't. That was ridiculous of course, he couldn't drown or anything...

She leaned over the water trying to see something.

Where was he...?

She realized her mistake when she felt someone grab her legs. She turned to see him on the other side of the dock, a mischievous smirk on his face.

"Don't you dare-"

She couldn't even finish her sentence before he pulled her in, freezing water soaking into her clothes.

"That wasn't very nice, love," his low voice said in her ear.

She couldn't help but shiver at the sound, she wished it was a shiver of disgust, than again he didn't have to know it wasn't.

"Well that's what you get for being a-"

"Think very carefully before you finish that sentence," he warned.

She scoffed. "You aren't going to do anything to me."

His arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her closer. "Are you sure about that? I can think of quite a few things I'd like to do to you."

Her gaze flicked down to his mouth, only for a second, but his smirk said he'd caught it.

She should push him away... She really should. So why wasn't she? She thought angrily. He leaned forward and, oh hell, she should really stop him-

The sound of a car door snapped her back to reality. She turned to see her cousin's blue hybrid. Caroline almost sighed with relief, saved by the redhead.

She shooed him away, and he quickly ducked under the water apparently no more eager to have Lydia see him than her, she felt something tug at her hair but ignored it, quickly turning toward the dock.

Lydia's stilettos clicked against the dock as she walked towards her. "What are you doing?"

"Swimming," she blurted out.

Lydia arched a brow. "In a leather jacket?"

Caroline looked down at her jacket, her six hundred dollar AllSaints jacket, that was now ruined. "I don't question your life choices," she defended.

Lydia clicked her tongue. "Uh-huh, are you feeling okay?"

She tried for a convincing smile. "Of course."

"Right... So this is... What? Your mid-life crisis twenty years early?"

Caroline almost snorted, more like a few hundred years early. "I have absolutely no idea what you mean. Why are you here? I thought we weren't having dinner until six."

"We aren't, I just thought I'd come over, maybe we could talk or... Swim?" She sounded more amused than concerned.

"You know, that sounds great," Caroline said, pulling herself back onto the dock. "Lets go inside, I need to dry off."

"Yeah, you have..." Lydia's delicate features pulled into a frown.

"What?"

Lydia reached forward and pulled something out of her hair. She held up a beaded leather cord. Damn it!

"Oh, that's mine, uh, it must have fallen off," she all but snatched it out of Lydia's hand.

"It's yours?" Lydia's disbelief was punctuated by an arched brow and her crossed arms.

"Yeah, who's else would it be?" She fastened it around her neck to prove her point.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," Caroline said, hoping she would drop it. Unfortunately, stubbornness was a family trait.

•••

Matt was late to meet Jeremy, who had finally gotten into town. He almost didn't see it as he hurried down the street, almost didn't see _her_.

But he did.

She was getting out of a black camaro, her blonde hair swept back out of her face, dark sunglasses covered her blue eyes, but it was definitely her. Maybe he should have guessed when her brothers started showing up that she would follow...

He probably looked completely crazy staring the way he was.

Snap out of it, Donovan, he thought as he started to walk away.

Wait, he froze as he saw who was waiting for her. That was one of Lydia's friends wasn't it?

Yeah, he was definitely one of the guys she was always with... What was his name? Isaac?

He tried to convince himself that it was only concern for Lydia and her friends that he felt when he saw them together, he hated jealously, especially when he had no right to feel it.

Maybe this was a more permanent problem, one of Lydia's friends was having lunch with Rebekah Mikaelson.


	9. Devil's in the Details

•

 **"The mind is its own place,**

 **And in itself can make a heaven of hell,**

 **A hell of heaven..."**

 **Paradise Lost**

 **John Milton**

Lydia stood in the high school, voices echoing from the end of the dark hall. She walked towards the noise, her heels tapping too loudly against the floor as she moved faster. The hall didn't change despite her practically sprinting towards the doors.

Suddenly she wasn't alone, Stiles stood beside her, grabbing her arm and trying to pull her the other way. "Come on, Lydia."

"I have to..." What? Why did it feel so important that she get to the end of the hall?

"No, come on," his voice was different from the usual sarcastic or adoring tones he uses to address her, it was fiercely adamant.

"I have to know what they're saying," they only grew louder when she acknowledged them.

"Lydia-"

"Come on!" She turned to see Caroline in front of her, standing further down the hall.

She looked back at Stiles only to see he had disappeared.

"Come on!" Caroline repeated turning and running down the hall.

Lydia glanced over her shoulder once more hoping to see Stiles but the hall remained empty and Caroline's footfalls were getting farther away.

She ran after her cousin, finally finding the end of the hall and pushed through the double doors into blinding sunlight.

It took a few seconds for her to realize she stood on the dock of the boathouse, Caroline stood on the other end smiling in her sunny way. "Come on, Lydia, you know!"

Lydia shook her head slightly, confusion making her thoughts sluggish. "Know? Know what?"

"You know!" She said, taking a step back towards the dark water. "You just don't want to admit it."

Lydia looked around but the hall was gone and so was Stiles, fear started to pull at her.

She turned back towards her cousin. "Caroline, what-?" The words died in her throat as she saw Caroline no longer stood alone on the end of the dock. Her companion was nothing more than a shadow, sapping the light and warmth from the place.

Caroline giggled, leaning back against the shadow of a person. "You know, Lyds, just admit it."

"I don't..." She shook her head, her hair flying around her face at the force of it. "I don't."

"Yes, you do," the shadows started surrounding Caroline, darkening her eyes and making her smile look more like she was baring her teeth. "You know."

"No,' Lydia almost screeched.

Caroline moved forward, her shadow following and darkening the world around her. "You know," she growled, lifting sharp claws towards Lydia's throat.

Lydia tried to move, to get away from the razor like nails nearing her, but she was frozen. Stuck in the darkness.

She watched them get nearer, her throat starting to ache, and a nagging feeling started in the back of her mind, like a thought she couldn't quite remember...

Before Caroline could reach her someone grabbed her arms, hauling her away from the monster that had been her cousin. She fell to the cold floor of a classroom, looking up at Stiles. He gave her a pain filled smile and her eyes lowered to see red spreading across the fabric of his T-shirt. Four lines cut through his shirt and exposed the deep wounds on his chest.

"Stiles," she whispered.

"It's okay, Lydia..." Stiles flashed one last smile before he dropped to his knees, his eyes going out of focus and he collapsed at her feet.

A scream tore from her throat as she sat up... in her bed. She glanced around her, her heart that felt like it was going to pound through her rib cage began to slow as she saw she was in her room. It was just a dream, she almost cried with relief, it was just a dream.

The ringing of her phone broke through the stillness of the moment and made her jump. She grabbed it off her side table, answering it when she saw the name on the screen.

"Stiles?"

"Are you okay?" She could hear worry in his sleepy voice, like he had just woken up.

"What?"

"You can yell at me for waking you up in just a second but first please tell me you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm... okay," she shook her head slightly. "Stiles why did you call? Did something happen?"

"No, I just," his voice became sheepish. "I just woke up and had this horrible feeling that you were... hurt, I guess. Sorry, I shouldn't have called..."

"Where are you?" She asked, her concern starting to come back.

"... My bed? I told you I just woke up."

"Yeah well you fall asleep in random places," she snapped at him, tiredness, embarrassment and concern making her sound angrier than she was. "I'm fine, Stiles, goodbye."

She hung up, laying back in bed and breathing deeply to try and slow her erratic heartbeat.

Only a dream, she thought as she closed her eyes, only a dream.

•••

Stiles stared down at his phone attempting to push away the worry. He had woken up panicked, this insistent feeling that something was wrong with Lydia. He knew she would be irritated by his call but he couldn't relax until he heard her voice, until he was one hundred percent sure she was okay.

And now, even after hearing her sleep laced voice insist she was fine, his heart beat too hard and he could barely breathe.

She's fine, idiot! He thought angrily, if you call again she'll kill you!

Stiles stood, walking to the closed window, leaning against the window frame as he tried to breathe. Finally his heart slowed and his breathing became even, but before he could turn from the window he caught movement by the trees next to his house.

He blinked a few times, scanning the area but everything was still. Maybe he was just imagining things.

He turned away from the window, going to his desk instead of his bed, he wasn't getting any sleep tonight anyway, might as well put the time to good use.

He lost track of the websites he'd searched, dawn light was beginning to filter through his curtains when he finally stumbled across something worth seeing even if it wasn't what he was looking for.

He printed it out, shoving it in his backpack, looks like he finally found that proof Lydia wanted.

•••

Deaton walked into the waiting room, a man stood on the other side of the partition. He had no doubt he was supernatural in some sense, but if he was dangerous Deaton wasn't sure. It was always better to play it safe with the preternatural.

"Can I help you?"

"I certainly hope so, Emissary."


	10. In the Background

•

 **"I became insane,**

 **With long intervals of horrible sanity."**

 **Edgar Allen Poe**

Scott hurried into the clinic, it must have been something important since Deaton insisted he come by before school instead of after.

"Sorry it took so long..." Scott paused when he saw Deaton wasn't alone; a man stood next to him, dressed ridiculously well in a suit Scott probably couldn't afford if he saved for the rest of his life.

"Scott," Deaton said. "This is Elijah."

The name was common enough but Scott doubted this was a coincidence. His flight or fight instinct kicked in, his wolf insisting he get rid of the threat while the more human side of him wanted to run from this room as fast as possible.

Elijah held out his hand, a knowing smile playing across his face. "So you're the one I've heard so much about."

Scott pushed down his impulse and shook his hand. "You've heard about me?"

"Of course, I keep tabs on all important supernaturals."

Scott wasn't sure if he was flattered or terrified. "Oh, uh, thanks?"

"He had some questions about the Nemeton," Deaton said calmly.

Scott stared at him for a moment before he cleared his throat. "Yeah, sure, I mean I don't really know that much, Deaton is the expert around here."

"I wanted to hear it from someone who's actually experienced one of these visions," he explained.

Scott shrugged. "What do you want to know?"

"Are the things the Nemeton show you relevant?"

"Relevant?"

"Yes, does it only show you what you need to know or does it show you things and you have to discern what is important?"

"No, uh, it shows you what you need, sometimes it's obvious what it means, sometimes it takes some piecing together, but everything the Nemeton shows you is important."

"And if it shows you a person? Is it possible to get a vision intended for another?"

"No-" it finally hit Scott that these weren't theoretical questions. "You had a vision?"

"Simply curious," he denied easily.

"The Nemeton knows you," Scott said, not believing him but deciding it was pointless, and possibly dangerous, to pry. "It doesn't just connect with your mind, it invades your soul, sees where your fate really leads... Anything it shows you is for you, you can deny it, run from it, try to explain it away, but the Nemeton doesn't lie, it only shows you the path when you're too lost to find it on your own."

•••

Stiles ran down the hall, scrambling into class and falling into his chair. He watched the door impatiently, waiting for Lydia, hoping she would come into class a few minutes early.

When she walked in he knew she hadn't slept any better than him. Sure she tried to hide it, her hair was done and her clothes were as perfect as always, but he could see the extra make-up under her eyes to hide the dark rings and the slight slump of her shoulders like she was too tired to hold herself upright.

She sat next to him, and proceeded to ignore him.

"Lydia?"

She looked at him slowly. "Well?"

"Remember how I said I think Caroline knows a vampire and then you got really angry and yelled about how I had no proof?"

"I believe I recall, yes," she said.

"What if I found proof?"

Her eyes sparked, and he could tell she was getting impatient with him. "What did you find, Stiles?"

He pulled the folded paper out of his backpack and handed it to her. Stiles would like to believe he knew Lydia pretty well but he had no idea how she would react to this new development, there was always the chance she'd kill the messenger.

She unfolded the paper, her manicured nails tapping on her desk as she looked it over. "It's a news article."

Stiles nodded. "Yup."

"From the thirties."

"Mhm."

"About a theater opening."

He nodded waiting to see if she would figure it out on her own.

"Stiles, you have ten seconds to explain why I should care," the subtle threat in her voice didn't go unnoticed.

He pointed to one of the people in front of the old building. "That's the guy I saw her with."

Lydia paused her eyes narrowing as she looked over the picture again. "You're sure?"

"Positive!" Stiles said, gesturing widely. "I'm sure, one hundred and fifty percent."

"It's an old picture..." Doubt practically dripped from her words.

"Lydia! Just trust me he's who I saw, why can't you believe me?"

"I just think..." Her words trailed off as her eyes focused on something outside the window.

Stiles followed her gaze to see Caroline outside the school, arguing, with him. They were too far away to hear anything but she moved her arms angrily as she spoke, or more likely yelled, at him.

"Believe me now?"

•••

Caroline hurried towards the school, she had overslept and barely made it out of the house in time.

"Caroline." She froze at the voice.

She could just keep walking, ignore him completely, it wasn't like she hadn't before. But for some reason she stopped and let him catch up.

"What do you want?" She demanded, crossing her arms and turning to face him.

"We didn't exactly get the chance to finish our discussion-"

"I'm going to be late," she said. "So save it."

"And here I thought we were getting along so well."

"You thought wrong," Caroline glared at him. "You aren't even supposed to be here," she gestured widely, hoping he got she meant the whole town and not just the school. "You can use whatever technicality you want, you're still breaking your promise."

Klaus looked ready to argue when his eyes flicked down to her neck and he smiled.

What? Oh, damn it... She had kept the necklace on to convince Lydia and forgotten to take it off, and then with over sleeping her alarm... She reached up to undo the clasp.

"Keep it, love, it suits you."

She threw it at him. "Thanks but I don't need a collar."

Caroline turned on her heels, marching away from him and into the school. This year was turning into a bigger train wreck than last year, not only was she dealing with the Mikaelsons but now she also had to keep it a secret from Lydia, which was turning out to be quite the chore.

Lydia and that guy Stiles gave her weird looks as she walked in. Caroline realized once she sat down that there was a clear view of where she had been standing through the window, how was she supposed to explain this one?

Before Lydia could force an explanation from her a sudden shriek came from down the hall. Caroline sighed, not again.


	11. Speculation and Reality

•

 **"My dear, you are in the wild now.**

 **There is no such thing as protection.**

 **When the wolves are hunting,**

 **Nobody is safe."**

 **-Sonya Chloé**

Stiles bolted from the classroom, almost crashing into a row of lockers as he skid around a corner. Oh, this was not good...

Ms. Smith, their history teacher, lay at the bottom of the stairs, four deep gashes cut across her neck. A girl, a freshman probably, stood over her hyperventilating.

Stiles stepped carefully towards her, setting a gentle hand on her arm. "Hey, it's okay."

She turned her panicked eyes to him, looking too shocked for a moment to even speak, suddenly she was wrapped around him sobbing into his shirt. "Oh, geez, okay, it's okay, you're okay," he stumbled over his words, his eyes searching over the body hoping he'd see something, anything to tip them off as to who did this.

The blood splatter was oddly contained, so the marks were purposeful, probably postmortem though he couldn't see any other fatal injuries.

Actually... there wasn't any substantial amount of blood around her either, it should've been pooling around her head from the cuts... Vampires.

How real the situation was finally hit him. They were dealing with creatures that _had_ to hurt people to survive. Werewolves hurt people for power, vampires did it to survive. How could they help people like that? Scott would insist they try, but the chances of this working out without any more blood shed...

Something glinted in the wound. He looked closer, what the... A bullet was pressed into one of the wounds. Why would someone slit a throat then put a bullet... His eye caught the small symbol on the side and his blood ran cold. This was so not okay.

•••

Scott saw the swarm of police cars as he pulled up to the school. He parked his bike and ran towards the commotion. Before he even reached the door Stiles came flying out of the school, almost running right into him.

"Whoa, what's going on?" Scott asked, reaching out to steady his friend.

"Call Argent," he ordered instead of explaining, he turned to run off again and then spun back around. "Do not text him!" And with that he ran back towards the school.

Scott ran after him, it took a moment, he lost him in the crowd, but eventually he found him talking with Lydia in coach's office.

"Guys, what is this? What's going on?"

Stiles ignored him pacing back and forth and irritably threaded his fingers through his hair. Lydia sighed. "Ms. Smith is dead."

Damn it, Scott actually winced at the words, he should've been here! He was supposed to protect these people.

"There's more," Stiles said. "Her throat was torn out-"

"Was it-?"

"No, this was different than last time, much more werewolfish. But in the cut was something else, a bullet-"

He frowned. "How did nobody hear a gun go off?"

"It wasn't shot," Stiles said, only succeeding in confusing Scott more, his friend must have seen the confusion on his face because he flicked hand around the way he did when he got annoyed that people couldn't keep up with his chaotic thought process. "Someone cut her throat than stuck a bullet into the wound, it was definitely symbolism though I'm not sure what it's supposed to mean."

Scott nodded, that made sense, more sense than he usually made. "But why did you want me to call Argent?"

Stiles paused. "Did you?"

"Well no-"

" _Do it,_ " he almost yelled, dragging out each word.

Lydia rolled her eyes, looking back to Scott. "The Argent seal was on the bullet."

"A hunter?" That made no sense, Ms Smith was human. Or at least they thought she was... but what if she had been something horrible hiding in plain sight, the Darach had been hiding right under their noses and all any of them had seen was sweet kinda eccentric Ms. Blake.

"She was human," Stiles argued. "Right? Right, she was human... 'We hunt those that hunt us" that's their little murder chant right? So why would they kill her? It doesn't make sense," Stiles said irritably, Scott knew at this point he was talking more to himself than them.

Lydia apparently wasn't in the mood to deal with Stiles erratic behavior, she marched over to him, and set her hands on his shoulders, effectively halting his pacing and ranting. "Stiles?"

"Mhm?"

"Calm down."

He nodded too quickly, Scott might have laughed if the situation hadn't been so grim, he would never get over her would he?

Lydia turned back towards Scott with a defeated sigh. "There's something else."

Scott didn't think he could take anything else. "What is it?"

"The guy Caroline was with... It's become more probable that he's-"

"He's a freaking vampire!" Stiles cut in. "You're being ridiculous. I have proof!"

Scott raised his brows at Stiles outbursts. "What proof?"

Stiles grabbed his backpack, rifling through it. He paused, looking up at Lydia. "Do you have it?"

Lydia's frowned as she shook her head.

"It's in the classroom, I'll be right back," Stiles dashed out of the room, going to retrieve whatever it was he thought proved him right.

"Does he really have proof?" Scott asked.

Lydia rolled her eyes. "Kind of."

Geez, if even Lydia admitted it... he must have found something serious.

•••

Caroline picked up the piece of paper from the floor under Lydia's desk, her cousin had dropped it when she ran after Stiles. She unfolded it carefully, she probably shouldn't be snooping but Lydia was starting to worry her...

A theatre? Maybe it was for history...

That's when she saw him. It had to be a coincidence. It's not like any sane person would jump to the conclusion that he was immortal. That would be crazy, true but crazy.

Stiles hurried into the room, coming to an abrupt stop when he saw her. "Oh, hey..."

She saw the way his eyes flicked to the paper in her hand, did he know something about vampires? "Hey, Lydia dropped this... What is it?" She smiled hoping he would just see her as the dumb blonde.

"Newspaper article," he said, she would have thought he was being condescending if it weren't for the suspicion in his eyes, like he knew how dangerous she really was.

"Oh? What's it for? I don't remember a history assignment..."

"Curiosity," he replied flatly.

"About a theatre?" She pressed.

"Why else would I have it?" His tone was challenging, like he was daring her to tell him what they both knew.

Because he did know something. "Why do you know him?"

Stiles crossed his arms, a stubborn glint in his eye. "Why do you?"

"I asked first."

"You're also lying to Lydia."

That made her pause. This guy was ridiculously protective of her cousin, that could either be a good thing or a very bad thing. "What do you know?"

"Enough, I think," he said.

"Tell me," she demanded, she could risk compelling him, but if he was on vervain it would only make things worse with Lydia.

"If you tell me what you know and why you don't trust Lydia with it."

She gave a slight nod after a moment, sitting slowly on her desk and watching as he sat on the teachers desk to face her. "Okay, let's talk."


	12. The Abyss Stares Back

•

 **"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"**

 **William Shakespeare**

Stiles waited for her to start, when she didn't immediately speak he assumed she was waiting for him to say something. "Vampire?" He really hoped that was right, this whole discussion was only happening because she thought he knew more than he did.

She nodded. "How do you know?"

"I know a lot of things," Stiles said, hoping it sounded cryptic instead of evasive.

"So who was it?" She sighed.

Stiles paused, running the question over in his head a few times before he shook his head. "Who was what?"

"Who did he kill? Your brother, friend, mother?" She muttered the last word.

"No, no, uh, that's not how I know him," Stiles silently cursed himself for stuttering.

"You aren't a hunter, are you?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

Stiles almost laughed out loud, yeah he was a hunter and Derek was a ballerina, but he choked down the laughter and sarcastic comment for once. "No, I'm not a hunter."

She seemed to relax a bit as if she could hear the honest in his statement... or his heartbeat, he realized.

"Are you one of us?"

It took him a long minute to process the simple question and when he did it finally hit him that she wasn't just talking about the guy, Caroline Forbes, Lydia's cousin, was a vampire.

•••

Isaac fell back on the mat panting. "It's not natural how strong you are," he groaned.

Argent laughed, offering a hand to help him up. He stood, wavering on his feet for a moment. "Are my ears ringing?"

Argent walked over to the table and picked up his phone. "It's Scott."

"Oh good, I thought that stupid emitter burst my ear drums," Isaac said, rolling his shoulders and wincing at the sharp pain that shot through his back.. "Total dick move by the way."

"Every hunter has emitters like that, we have to find a way around that weakness," Argent set the phone down. Isaac couldn't help being pleased that he would ignore Scott to finish his conversation with him. There was a small part of him, a part he tried to ignore, that wanted Argent to be proud of him.

He didn't show it though, he wouldn't let anyone have that kind of power over him ever again. "Could we find a way around it tomorrow? I don't think my ears can handle it right now."

"Yeah, but don't forget—"

"I'm already working on it," Isaac promised, and he was, kind of. The people he was trying to track down were ridiculously good at staying under the radar.

"There has been activity in the area, we need to find them before something else happens."

"It might be easier if you told me what they are,' he said trying not to sound too annoyed with Argent's lack of trust.

He sighed. "You don't want to know."

Isaac remembered suddenly the conversation at lunch the day before with the pack, Stilinski better be right. "Vampires don't seem that much worse than werewolves."

Argent paused and Isaac felt his heart beat spike as he worried he had guessed wrong.

"Who told you?" He finally said.

"So it is vampires."

Argent winced as he realized Isaac had only been speculating. "You don't want to be involved."

"Why not? You're teaching me to hunt things like that, I deal with werewolves and banshees and kitsune, why not vampires?"

"They're much different than the supernaturals you deal with."

"How? Why can I track them down but not kill them," he demanded, their voices coming dangerously close to yelling.

"Because I said and until you're done with training my word is law!" Argent roared.

"I can handle this! You're bringing Thomas, why can a human hunter go and I can't?" Isaac yelled back.

"You're not going on this hunt, do you understand me?"

There was a moment of silence as they glared at each other, the silence was shattered by the ringing of Argent's phone. He marched back to the table, hitting answer. "What?"

Isaac didn't stick around to hear whatever Scott had called about, turning and leaving the house too fast for Argent to argue.

•••

The sound of Lydia's heels hitting the floor in the hall outside the room broke Stiles out of his shocked silence. "Stiles, what are you—?" She paused when she saw her cousin.

"Hey, Lydia," Caroline smiled easily as if she hadn't just admitted to being a member of the undead.

"Hey, Care," her eyes flicked to the piece of paper still in Caroline's hand. "What's going on?" It was a casual enough question but her tone implied much more than the spoken words.

"Nothing," Caroline stood, handing Stiles the paper and brushing past her cousin.

Lydia watched her leave. "Stiles, what was that about?"

She sounded so concerned, she couldn't even accept her cousin knowing a vampire, how was she going to handle her being one?

"Nothing," he muttered, leaving a confused Lydia to find Scott. This was going to come back to bite him.

•••

Davina was almost sure she was going insane, the voices in her head telling her to go into the woods was the biggest clue. The air seemed to get colder the louder the voices got. She pulled her jacket tighter around her, the clothes Deaton had given her were loose and the sleeves were too long but it was better than the bloodstained dress.

Eventually she stood in front of a stump, she stepped onto it. The voices were clear here, whispering things about the darkness to come.

 _Death_ , they whispered.

 _Blood will spill,_ they hissed their warning in her ears.

 _Dangerous path,_ another murmured.

" _The sacrifice will come to pass_ " the dead voice came from her own mouth, the breathe suddenly left her as she fell back, her head hitting the wood with a sickening crack as the world went dark.

•••

Kol watched the witch step onto the Nemeton, she stood silent for a moment before her entire body tensed. "The sacrifice will come to pass," she said in voice that clearly wasn't her own before she collapsed, her head hitting the wood with a resounding crack. Dark red started spreading across the stump and trickling down to the forest floor.

He shouldn't interfere, if the Nemeton needed her for something he should just let it have her.

But as he watched her blood spread and her heart slow he felt a twinge from the conscience he wasn't aware he still had.

"Bloody hell," he muttered, flashing to her side and tearing into his wrist. He heard her heartbeat steady as she drank his blood and after a moment her eyes fluttered opened.

"Who are you?" There was no fear in her soft voice.

Kol grinned. "Someone you need clearly."


	13. Things We Lost In the Fire

**A\N: sorry this one took so long, I've been working on a few other stories and haven't been very inspired. Thank you for being so patient.**

•

 **"All I've ever learned from love**

 **Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you,"**

 **Hallelujah**

 **Jason Castro**

Argent set the bullet back on the table. Stiles waited for him to say something, Scott, Lydia, Melissa and him stood around the table in the morgue as Argent examined the bullet. They had asked Kira to come but she didn't have the stomach to go into the morgue.

"It's not possible," Argent finally muttered more to himself than them.

"Really because the torn out throat and traumatized freshman say otherwise," Stiles said.

Argent hesitated. "It's the Argent seal, but the bullet..."

"The bullet?" Stiles pressed.

"There was only one person in our family that used this type of bullet as their talisman."

There was a long silence as they all waited for him to explain, Stiles was of course the first to lose patience. "Okay, suspenseful pause over, who was it?"

"Kate."

In retrospect maybe he shouldn't have rushed the answer.

•••

"I'm not inviting you in," Davina stated, crossing her arms and notching her chin up defiantly.

"Come now, darling, I did just save your life," Kol leaned on his arm against the doorframe, flashing a devil may care smile.

"And you think that earns you an invitation in?"

"Yes, actually, if I intended you any harm I would've let you bleed out."

"There's some logic there, flawed but logic," she said. "But it's not even my house, and it is extremely rude to invite vampires into another persons home."

"Extremely," he agreed. "Then I suppose I'll say goodnight."

"It's not even two."

"Good afternoon?"

She smiled. "Goodbye."

"Now that's just much too final."

She arched her brows. "Until next time?"

"Until next time," Kol agreed.

•••

Lydia had had about enough of Stiles avoidance act. He hadn't so much as glanced at her since she found him and Caroline talking that morning, which meant the twerp was hiding something from her. As soon as Argent was done explaining Stiles hurried out of the morgue. Lydia followed after him, catching up to him in the parking lot.

"Stiles!" She called, running as fast as she could in her platform Mary Jane heels. She should have worn flats, she thought grudgingly. "Stiles, wait a minute!"

He paused, his hand on the door handle of his Jeep, he stood like that for a moment with his back towards her as of debating whether he could get away with ignoring her. He turned with raised eyebrows. "Yeah?"

"Have something to tell me?" She crossed her arms and arched a brow at him.

"Uh... No?" Stiles actually looked confused.

"Really? Nothing at all?" Lydia said giving him the chance to back track.

"Not that I can think of, no," he said. "So if that's all you wanted..." he started to turn away.

"Why are you hiding from me?" She asked calmly.

He faced her, his brow furrowed, his mouth a thin line. "I'm sorry?"

"Don't act innocent. If you aren't keeping something from me why have you been acting so strange since talking with Caroline?"

"Strange? I just saw our history teachers mutilated body, there's a murderer running around town and Argent just told us there's a good chance it's his dead sister. And knowing all that you came to the conclusion that the only possible reason I could be acting a bit strange is because of you?" Stiles said angrily. "Have you ever stopped and considered maybe I'm worried? That serial killings is just the tiniest bit concerning?"

Lydia opened her mouth to reply but the words died in her throat at his next words. "Have you ever considered that maybe the entire world doesn't actual revolve around Lydia Martin?"

She stared at him for a long moment, Stiles didn't say things like that, he wasn't intentionally cruel... She waited to see regret on his face, for him to realize how much his words had hurt her, for him to apologize, but all she saw was anger.

Vicious, toxic, destructive anger.

"My mistake," she said quietly, turning and walking away, her head held high even as traitorous tears spilled from her lashes and down her face, she heard the Jeep door slam behind her but she didn't look back, she didn't, wouldn't, let him see the power he held over her.

•••

Scott was about to follow Stiles when Argent caught his shoulder. "Have you seen Isaac?"

The question took him off guard. "Uh, no, I could call him..."

"No," Argent said. "I'm sure it's fine."

Scott was going to ask if there was a reason it wouldn't be fine but his phone started ringing.

"I'll let you get that," Argent excused himself.

Scott saw Kira's name and smiled, answering quickly. "Hey."

"Hi, so remember when you said not to do anything until we heard what Argent had to say about the bullet?" Her nervous voice said hurriedly.

"Yeah," Scott said.

"Well I did something, sorry," she added.

"Did this thing you did result in a life or death situation?"

"No," she said quickly. "But I was just sitting at home and I thought I might as well do something useful with the time, right? Well I did some more research on that town, you know the one with all the weird animal attacks, and I found something..."

"What did you find?" Scott asked nervously, not sure he really wanted an answer.

"Lydia's cousin is from Virginia, right?"

"Yes..."

"I'll send it to you," she sighed and a moment later his phone buzzed with a text. "Maybe it's nothing, I don't know, I'll talk to you later." The end tone rang in his ear.

Scott looked at the notification box on his screen for awhile wondering if he wanted another thing to worry about tonight or if this was a problem for tomorrow. He opened it, it took him a moment to realize what he was looking at. A picture of people swarmed around a crime scene, red and blue lights glowed in the background, blood splattered the concrete around a body. But it was a person in the background, behind the yellow tape, his face half hidden in shadows that made the picture relevant.

He zoomed in to get a closer look and a sinking feeling started in his stomach, the man that had come to town with Caroline stood there watching the chaos and Scott started to think Stiles was right, these people knew something more than they were saying.

Scott forwarded the photo to Stiles, Lydia and Isaac, he would have sent it to Malia too but Stiles had changed her ringtone to a wolf howling and when she heard it she was so surprised she threw her phone against the wall, breaking it completely in half.

Scott looked down at the picture again as if it might change, but behind all the hype of police and the corpse of a girl stood Damon.


	14. Those Who Favor Ice

•

 **When you meet him,**

 **You will realise**

 **That sometimes they make people**

 **Who have tornadoes instead of souls.**

 **-Nikita Gill**

Klaus was beginning to think his brothers mind had gotten a bit scrambled during the trip back from the dead. Kol had been unusually pleasant the last few days, which only made him more annoying, especially since Klaus had been in a particularly terrible temper since his argument with Caroline.

"Who in hell are you talking to?" Klaus finally snapped.

"An asset," his brother answered vaguely.

Klaus was about to start a fight that even he had to admit would be pointless, when he happened to glance out the window. A boy stood in the woods that surrounded the house he was staying in until he could have a more suitable place built, the same boy that had been in the coffee shop, as well as the school... and the lake.

Well it appeared it was Kol's lucky day, he had a new focus for his anger.

* * *

Stiles had promised Scott he wouldn't do anything crazy, like follow a possible serial killer to his secluded house in a the forest. He would have kept that promise, but he couldn't sit still, when he sat still he thought too much, about Caroline being a monster, about the dead body that had once been his strict teacher, about the hurt in Lydia's eyes...

He had gone to the coffee shop, the caffeine would only make matters worse but old habits die hard. Stiles happened to see him, Mr. Mystery Vampire. Caroline had made it clear in their very brief conversation that he wasn't someone to be messed with. Than again neither was Derek and Stiles made a habit of pissing him off.

It couldn't hurt to just see where he was going, just to know where he was staying. Stiles followed the sleek black sports car to a secluded spot in the woods just outside of town.

Stiles could have left then, he knew where the murderous vampire lived, but instead he parked the car out of view of the house and snuck through the trees. Four cars were in the driveway, which meant he was either obnoxiously rich, or he wasn't alone. Actually, whether the latter was true or not the guy was definitely doing well financial.

The place was twice as big as his house, not to mention a billion times nicer. The curtains on the window to the living room were open and Stiles saw he had been right, someone else was there, the guy was facing away from the window. It looked like the two were arguing about something, Mr. Murderer suddenly looked up and Stiles froze as he looked right at him.

Well, look at the time, he was going to be late for not dying.

Stiles turned and ran as fast as he could, he only got about ten feet before someone grabbed the collar of his shirt and threw him to the ground. "Unnecessary roughness much?" he groaned, he was going to have so many bruises tomorrow, then again, he thought as he looked up at cold eyes of the man above him, he might not live long enough for that to be a problem.

Stiles tried to sit up but the man planted a boot on his chest. "Who are you, and why are you here?"

"I could tell you if you weren't crushing my lungs," Stiles said, his chest beginning to hurt from the pressure.

He pressed his boot against his chest harder for a moment, yup, that would bruise too, before he removed it and allowed Stiles to stand up.

"It would be in your best interest to speak, before I ensure you never do so again. Trust me when I say, you and I have very different perceptions about the worth of human life."

"Somehow I don't find that hard to believe," Stiles muttered, he flinched when the man stepped forward. Don't be such a wimp, he internally screamed at himself, you deal with freaking werewolves on a regular basis. "Have you ever entertained the idea that you have some anger issues?"

The man moved faster than Stiles' eyes could follow, but suddenly he was pinned against a tree, his hand cutting off Stiles' airway. Stiles clawed at his hand but he didn't loosen his hold. When black dots began to appear in his vision he finally released him, Stiles fell, gasping oxygen into his hungry lungs.

"Caroline was right," Stiles huffed to himself.

The man hauled him up by his collar. "What did you say?" he growled, and Stiles saw his eyes flash yellow. Not beta gold, _yellow_. Was it stereotypical that he expected his eyes to turn red?

"What? Is the big bad vampire insecure?" Stiles was aware that it was very thin ice he was stomping on.

"I will force you to watch everyone you love burn," he said and Stiles got the feeling it wasn't an idle threat.

Time for his go-to strategy, make a random guess and hope like hell he was right. "Caroline wouldn't like that."

Judging by the rage on his face Stiles assumed he had hit a nerve. "She doesn't like your murderous habits very much, does she?"

The man shoved him away, and Stiles felt the smallest spark of pride that he managed to stay standing. "Get off my property before I throw you off in pieces."

Stiles walked away, as fast as he could without running, he did have some pride, not enough to risk his life by staying, but it was there. Did this count as doing something crazy?

* * *

Lydia ate in silence, her mother oblivious to the tension between the two cousins. Caroline was as pleasant as always, talking with her mother about school and the upcoming back to school dance.

"Do you have a date, Lydia?" her mother asked. Any year before her mother could have asked that on the first day of summer break and the answer would have been yes. But now, now Lydia didn't even know if she would be at the dance. The pack might go together, unless Scott finally worked up the nerve to ask Kira. Stiles wouldn't have a date unless he went with Malia, but their summer fling had fizzled out fast so that was doubtful. Who would she really go with if they didn't all go together? Isaac? He would probably laugh in her face, he held grudges longer than anyone.

"No," she answered, keeping her voice the same casual tone as theirs, and just so her mother wouldn't worry or think something was out of the ordinary she added, "Not yet."

"What about you, Caroline?"

If Lydia hadn't gotten into a fight with Stiles, if she wasn't feeling so vindictive, she might have let Caroline get away with the same vague answer she had. But sometimes, Lydia had to admit, she was a bitch. "Yeah, Care, are you going to invite that guy you've been seeing?"

"You've been seeing someone?" There was only curiosity in her mother's voice, she wasn't strict with her own daughter, she definitely wasn't going to be with her niece. She was nosy though.

"No, I'm not," Caroline said immediately.

"Oh, come on, I'm not Liz," her mother said, clearly misinterpreting Caroline's reluctance to answer, "I won't run a background check or anything."

"Yeah, we share gossip in this house," Lydia said jokingly even though it was true.

"It's true," her mother agreed, missing the coldness in Lydia's smile.

"He's just a friend, we're not... together or anything," Caroline shrugged. "It doesn't matter anyway, he should be leaving town soon."

"Oh really? Does it have anything to do with the fight you guys had yesterday?" Lydia asked, her voice full of fake concern.

Caroline smiled, and it was just as fake as Lydia's. "No, we weren't _fighting_ , just discussing something."

"Of course," Lydia said deadpan. Her mother looked confused by Lydia's sudden shift in mood but didn't comment.

Something changed between them at that moment, they couldn't pretend anymore, about any of it. And they both knew it.

 **A\N: hey guys, I know this isn't the most exciting chapter but I wanted more interaction between the TVD and the TW characters. I've been thinking about starting a Dark Matter Vampire Diaries crossover, but I'm not sure. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, the next chapter should be more eventful. Thanks for reading!**


	15. Since You've Been Gone

**A\N: TVD is officially over, I totally cried when they showed Jenna and John! And the letter! There's still hope for klaroline. Anyway, this chapter is a little more interesting than the last ones. Enjoy, thanks for reading!**

•

 **"Oh sweetie,**

 **Monsters are real**

 **And they look just like people."**

 **Unknown**

The lights of the gas station were blinding, she shielded her eyes with her hand. The noise from the highway roared in her ears, metal scraping rang out painfully loud. She glanced across the lot to see a man had dropped a handful of change onto the ground.

The smell of gasoline hit her and she almost gagged. Everything was too much, she heard too much, and saw too much, and _felt_ too much. She couldn't focus or think, a million things pulling her attention in every direction. Suddenly a noise drowned everything else out, a loud thumping sound. She looked over at the man across the station parking lot, she could see his pulse, blood flowing through the carotid artery in his neck.

Her jaw ached, an odd pulsing sensation started under her eyes. Her throat _burned_.

All of her senses finally focused on one simple thing, she was starving.

* * *

"You can't avoid her forever," Scott said. It would have been a lot easier to ignore him if he wasn't making so much sense.

"Why is everyone accusing me of avoiding her?" Stiles knew lying was pointless when the person you were lying to could hear your heartbeat, he was still going to do it though. He slid out of the jeep, closing the door loudly and saw Scott flinch from the sound. Served him right, using his wolf senses on his best friend.

"Because you are." Scott said after he got out and shut his own door.

"Great argument, you going to join the debate team?"

"Stiles-"

"'Cause you say 'uh' a lot, and I don't think they'll accept that-"

"I'm serious, now isn't the best time for there to be division in the pack."

Stiles knew what Scott said made sense, could he stop doing that? They needed to figure out who was killing people, even Stiles had trouble believing Kate had clawed her way out of hell, which meant someone else was using her symbol, there had to be a reason they used hers in particular, killers don't just shove random things into their victims necks. Lydia was their death detector, and Stiles was the brains of the operation, okay maybe that was Lydia too, but still, them being at odds was bad for everyone. "I don't think we need to worry too much about that vampire." he changed the subject, momentarily forgetting why he needed to avoid that subject as well.

"Why? Yesterday you wanted to throw holy water on the guy," Scott looked at him suspiciously. "What happened?"

"Maybe I just had a change of heart," he flung out his hand. "Decided to look for the best in people."

Scott stopped walking, giving him an unbelieving look. "Really, What happened?"

Stiles gave an exasperated sigh. "I did something-"

"Something? Like something you promised you wouldn't do?"

" _No_ ," he denied immediately. "...Maybe, sort of. Okay, listen-"

Scott's eyes flashed red as he inhaled deeply, he frowned in confusion. "Why do you smell like wolf?"

"I-" his defense died in his throat as he actually heard what his friend had said. "Wolf? That doesn't make sense, he's a vampire."

"He's a..." Scott's eyes widened, his look of shock almost comical. "Stiles! Tracking down a supernatural killer falls into the category of crazy! Do we need to go over the definition of the word?"

"I didn't mean to."

"How do you accidentally do something like that?" Scott demanded too loudly.

Other students glanced their way. Gossip hungry parasites. "Yes! Let's scream about my altercation with a murderer, that's a fun game!" Stiles whispered yelled.

" _Altercation_?" Scott said. "You got into a fight with him?"

If getting thrown into a tree counts as a fight. "Not exactly. But what did you mean I smell like a wolf?"

"I mean you smell like a wolf," Scott said, "an unfamiliar one."

"His eyes," he muttered as he realized what this meant. Why did he have to be smart? Stiles thought miserably.

"What?" Scott looked at him in confusion, and Stiles remembered he actually had to explain his thoughts. Why couldn't werewolves be psychic? It would save them all a lot of time.

"His eyes, they were yellow," Stiles gestured to his face. "Like cheap neon sign yellow."

"Like a beta-"

"No! _Yellow_ , do we need to get a color wheel?"

"Okay, but what does that mean?"

"Scott, you're acting like a basic high school athlete today," Stiles hurried past his friend towards the door to the school as the bell rang. "That shit has got to stop."

* * *

Isaac was late, not that it really mattered, his GPA was already in the trash, skipping one class wasn't going to hurt anything.

"Isaac."

He internally groaned at Argent's voice, he should have gone to school. Isaac turned. "Can't talk, late for class."

"You didn't come back to the house last night."

"Stayed with Rebekah, don't worry," he added in a grumble, "wasn't tracking down any murderous vampires."

"Look, you can come and go as you please, but you have to tell me when you're not... when you're staying out."

"Yeah, I'll be sure to do that," he turned and headed down the street towards the school.

"Isaac."

"Have to go to school, education, college. We have a test today!" Isaac continued to talk as he walked away, not giving Argent the chance to speak.

* * *

Davina closed her eyes, focusing on the almost dead plant in front of her. She had found the sad little forgotten plant on the window sill in an otherwise empty room in Deaton's house. The floral bedspread suggested a more feminine presence in this room, but the drawers on the vanity were empty, as well as the closet. No one lived in here.

She smiled as she watched the brown leaves slowly smooth and turn a dark green. An unnoticed blossom bloomed into a bright red flower. Her phone buzzed with a message. Her smile grew when she saw who it was from.

"This town is so bloody boring" the message read.

She rolled her eyes. "You could go to school like a normal teenager" she sent back.

It was only a moment before a new message popped up. "You aren't in school".

Her smile grew, and, though she didn't notice it, the plants leaves grew and the petals of the small flower unfurled further. "Careful, you're starting to sound like a total stalker".

"Maybe I am" he replied.

She rolled her eyes.

Another message appeared, "nice shirt by the way".

She looked down at the shirt she had found in the box of clothes Deaton had given her. She rolled her eyes, "Very funny".

The reply was almost instant, "no really, I like The Sugarcubes".

She looked around then back down at the large print across her shirt. She shook her head, "where are you?".

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!" His voice called from outside the open window. She leaned out the window to see Kol standing in the side yard.

"I can't!" She called back, trying to keep the smile from her voice. "It took me twenty minutes to get it in this stupid ballerina bun!"

He laughed. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, come out the front door."

She turned and ran out of the room, almost tripping down the stairs in her hurry, she really hoped he didn't hear that. He was waiting for her on the front step when she opened the door.

"As busy as I'm sure you were, could you spare an hour or two?"

She pretended to think for a moment. "I suppose I could adjust my schedule. What did you have in mind?"

* * *

The school day was a blur of already known information and avoiding Stiles and Caroline. Lydia got to history just as the bell rang. The substitute was Coach Finstock until they could find another history teacher to fill the position.

She sat in her normal desk, next to Stiles, Scott right behind her. She probably wouldn't be able to avoid talking to them. She wasn't ready to talk.

"Alright, quiet down," Coach said. When the room didn't quiet down at all he barked, "Shut up!" Silence fell over the room. "That's better, your new teacher is starting tomorrow, which means I don't have to deal with you anymore. Let's all be grateful for that."

"Love you too, Coach," Stiles smarted off, pounding a fist on his chest.

"Thank you, Stilinski, for that unasked for outburst." Coach started his lesson, normally Lydia would be interested in Viking history but Coach's choleric tone along with Stiles sarcastic commentary made it hard to enjoy. A motorcycle drove by outside, and for a moment her mind sunk to a darker place, Aiden flashing through her thoughts and sending a spike of pain through her heart.

"Martin?" She blinked away her depressing thoughts as she heard her name, judging by Coach's face it wasn't the first time she'd said it. "Earth to Martin."

"Sorry, Coach, what was the question?"

Sniggers came from around her. "Are you listening?" Coach repeated.

"I'm sorry... I just- I can't," Lydia stood, grabbing her bag and hurried out of the room and away from the concerned looks and judgmental glances.

* * *

Stiles watched Lydia leave, the tap of her heels getting further and further away. He was about to make everything better or a billion times worse. Stiles scrambled out of his desk, going to follow her.

"Stilinski, I didn't dismiss class, sit your ass down."

"But-"

"Sit down!"

"Think about it this way, you don't have to listen to me talk for the next half an hour."

Coach glared at him for a long moment, then he waved his hand, apparently not caring enough about Stiles' education to argue with him. As he rushed after Lydia he heard Coach snap at the rest of the class, "Don't any of you leave! This isn't the exodus of the dumb asses."

Stiles almost fell as he ran around a corner following Lydia, what did they wax the floors with? Stiles had to talk to Janitor Riley about that.

He froze, he stopped breathing. For a moment he just stood there in shock, and then another instinct kicked in, the fierce need to protect someone he loved. Stiles ran down the hall, hitting the girl leaching off Lydia with all the force he could manage. The girl crashed to the floor, taken off guard by the sudden attack. Stiles saw her face for the first time, and despite the black veins pulsing across her face and the dark red of her eyes he recognized her. "Rebekah?"

"Hello, Stiles," she smiled, red glinting on her normally blinding white teeth.

Before he could reply, or even process the fact that Rebekah was a _freaking vampire_ , she was standing in front of him, her eyes locked on his and she spoke. "You will forget what you saw here, and will forget everything that happens until I'm gone from this hall."

Stiles heard his own voice repeat her instructions. She bit into her wrist and Stiles cringed as Lydia drank her blood. And in a blur, Rebekah was gone.

Stiles blinked, Lydia had just appeared... he pushed his confusion away, concern for Lydia overshadowing the strange feeling in his head, like a thought at the edge of his mind, just out of reach.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Stiles, I'm not the one with a D minus in history," Lydia said, not warmly but not coldly either. He'd call that progress especially since he hadn't actually gotten around to apologizing.

"Look, uh, I'm... sorry," he stumbled over his words, unsure how to go about this, but managed to get out the awkward apology.

She stared at him for a long moment. "Doesn't matter." She turned away from him and started down the hall. "Go back to class. You're going to get an F."

Stiles watched her leave, and then he turned and walked the opposite way, because, she was right, he could not afford to fail that class.

* * *

Hayley walked down the street towards the vets office. She couldn't leave without _something_ , well something besides the vague vision she'd gotten at the Nemeton.

She slowed and listened for a moment, she could have sworn she heard-

"Hello, wolf."

She was going to kill him. "Not in the mood." She refused to look at him but she could see him smile out of the corner of her eye.

"I wanted to apologize, for my impertinent behavior," he said, could he not take a hint? When she didn't reply he continued. "I wanted to introduce myself-"

"You're a Mikaelson, right?"

"Yes, I am," he said, "Elijah-"

"I don't care." She cut him off again. "I also don't care what ever it is you want."

"Do I have to want something to speak to you?"

 _Way_ too late to play innocent, she thought. "You just decided you were in the wrong and you should beg for my forgiveness?"

"In my very long life never have I begged."

Prideful, what a surprise. "Paraphrasing."

"Do you know what that word means?"

She stopped and turned to look at him for the first time. "Once again, I don't care. About anything you have to say, so..." She turned and continued towards the bland building.

"What if I could tell you who you birth parents were?"

Hayley's steps faltered. You can't trust a Mikaelson, she thought to herself even as she turned to look at him. "I'm guessing that information isn't free?"

He raised his brows as he asked, with infuriating politeness, "Would you care to talk now?"

* * *

She wasn't sure how she had gotten here, but the energy thrumming through the trees around her meant she was no longer on the Other Side. The earth under her feet, the forest around, it was all alive.

She stumbled out of the tree line onto a dark road, her entire body _hurt_. It had been so long since she'd been able to feel anything...

She laughed, she was alive. Somehow, someway, she was _alive_. She looked around, not seeing anyone in either direction. Closing her eyes, she focused, and felt the buzz of human activity a few miles away, a town. That's where they would be.

She started walking, after awhile her legs ached and her lungs burned but it wasn't a bad feeling after all these years. She didn't know how long she had, this might end any second, and she would suddenly be back on the Other Side... or somewhere worse. She had to warn them before that happened. But, despite her determination, she collapsed halfway there.

A pair of headlights came down the long stretch of dark road.

 _Help_ , she threw the thought out as hard as she could. Relief washed through her when the car pulled over. The man's eyes widened when he saw her on the ground, she probably looked like hell. She almost laughed at her own thoughts.

"Help," her voice was rough as she spoke for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"Oh, geez," he pulled out his phone and dialed someone. After a grief exchange with a nine-one-one operator he sat next to her. "What happened?"

She only shook her head, darkness edging into her vision.

"Can you tell me your name?" he said, trying to keep her talking. Smart, but pointless, she couldn't stay awake much longer, that probably wasn't good.

"Freya," she managed to get out. "Freya Mikaelson."


	16. Karma's a Bitch

•

 **"And yet, to say the truth,**

 **Reason and love keep little company together nowadays."**

 **William Shakespeare**

Melissa was officially baffled. The woman had been brought to the hospital almost a week before, she hadn't woken up, in fact, she showed all the outward signs of being comatose, but her brain activity was unusually elevated.

That was good, or at least it meant she should wake up. No body had come to see her and she wondered if the girl had no family or if they just didn't know she was there.

Melissa took the clipboard from her door, Mikaelson was an odd name but it was also familiar. She grabbed the phone book from under the desk at the nurses station, maybe the girl had relatives in the area.

* * *

"What is _wrong with you_!" Lydia seethed.

"I would just like to remind you all that I might have found a way to blackmail a killer vampire, at the risk of my own safety, to save your asses." Stiles said.

"And my cousin's!" Lydia said.

"That's the thing, I think he likes her."

"You think?" Lydia arched a brow. "And _why_ do you think that?"

"I'm pretty sure he was going to kill me, I threw out Caroline's name and he didn't kill me."

"Alright," Lydia set her hands on her hips and stepped forward. Stiles would've stepped back but his back was already against the locker behind him, they had decided to talk in the locker room because they could turn on the showers and prevent anyone with super hearing from listening in, but now Stiles was just worried it would only mean nobody would hear his screams. "But here's another possibility, Mr. I'm-too-smart-to-listen-to-anybody, she's running away from him, he heard you say her name and let you go so he could follow you, find her, and kill her when he does."

Stiles sighed heavily, flicking his hand as he tried to think of a reason that couldn't true. "Possibly, _maybe_ -"

Lydia hit his arm with her purse. "Ouch!" he set a hand on his arm where the fake gems had scratched him. "I'm a little offended that I told you I almost died and you _blame me_."

"If you were minding your own business, like we told you-"

"Lydia, calm down," Scott said finally cutting into the fight. He couldn't have done that before she whacked him? "I know you're worried about Caroline, but this just means you need to talk to her about this, soon."

"I will," Lydia said.

Scott gave her a disbelieving look.

"I will!" Lydia insisted.

"When," Stiles tapped the nonexistent watch on his wrist. "Time sensitive situation."

"You don't get to talk right now," Lydia said.

"Guys, when I said you had to talk this isn't what I meant," Scott said.

"I told you! She's the one being totally unreasonable about all of this," Stiles said.

" _Me_? You tracked down a serial killer! Is people dying not a big deal anymore?" She yelled.

"Lydia-" Scott attempted but Stiles was already yelling back, "You dated a serial killer! Two of them. How am I the bad guy here? I figured out how to fix this while you've been pouting like a child!"

Scott gave him a reproachful look, "Stiles-"

"You sold out my cousin like a coward to save yourself from the situation you got yourself into!"

"Guys, please-"

"I didn't sell her out!" Stiles shouted. "It's not my fault she's screwing a psychotic murderer!"

Lydia grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him against the locker, he winced as the metal hit the bruises covering his back. She stepped closer, their noses almost touching as she leaned forward and growled, "What did you just say?"

* * *

"Caroline!" Lydia roared and Caroline turned to see other students scrambling out of her cousin's way. Stiles and Scott followed behind her, clearly trying, and failing, to calm her down.

"I mean, I'm making assumption," Stiles said desperately, mouthing "run away" at Caroline.

"Yeah," Scott agreed quickly, "you know Stiles is always jumping to conclusions."

"I mean I'm usually right-" Scott elbowed him, "but definitely not about this."

Lydia stopped in front of her. Scott and Stiles sharing nervous looks behind her. Other students were lingering around them, probably wondering if this would turn into a fight.

Before she could speak Isaac ran down the hall, coming to a screeching halt when he saw Lydia's murderous look. "I'm guessing the pack meeting I missed was pretty important?" he said under his breath.

Caroline barely heard it even with her heightened hearing, Scott threw his hand up in exasperation, "I said it was an emergency."

She frowned in confusion, he heard that?

Lydia noticed the people around them and rolled her eyes, grabbing Caroline's arm and dragged her into the coach's office. She slammed the door in Stiles' face.

"Please tell me he is just being the paranoid conspiracy theorist he is!"

Caroline knew better than to defend herself before she knew what this was about. Lydia obviously didn't know anything or Stiles would've told her- "Tell me we aren't dealing with a murderous vampire because you decided to screw the wrong person!"

Okay, she knew way more than Caroline had thought even Stiles knew. "You're really going to judge me?"

Lydia's eyes widened. "Yes!" she shouted, "What were you thinking?"

"Right, I'm crazy but it's perfectly fine for you to be best friend's with a vampire," accusation colored her voice. The bell rang but they both ignored it.

"What are you talking about?"

"Scott!" Caroline didn't appreciate her cousin's clueless act.

"He's not a vampire, he's a werewolf!"

"And maybe we shouldn't scream about this?" Stiles called from the other side of the door.

"Scott?" Caroline laughed out despite the irritated look on Lydia's face.

"What's so amusing, please, do tell."

Caroline tried to sober as she heard the venom in the redhead's tone. "It's only- Scott is really... nice, and rational."

Lydia crossed her arms. "Someone being a werewolf doesn't give them an excuse to be a jackass."

"But what was he like before?"

Lydia gave her an expectant and confused look, "Before?"

"Before he triggered the curse," Caroline explained.

"Triggered the curse? He was bitten."

"That's not how the wolf gene works."

"Tell that to McWolf out there."

"There are different ways to become a werewolf!" Scott called.

"Since when?" Lydia yelled over her shoulder.

"Since Deaton chose to enlighten us," Stiles said.

"Shut up, Stiles!" Lydia yelled.

"You asked!" he shouted back.

" _Shut up_!" she screeched. Lydia paused, rubbing her forehead, she took a deep breath before she spoke again, "Fine, I can't judge you for knowing supernaturals, but he's killing people-"

"It's not him! It's Kol."

Lydia groaned. "Who is Kol?"

"Klaus' brother."

"And Klaus... is the vampire who Stiles got in a fight with?"

Caroline laughed, deep, stomach aching laughter. "Stiles? Stiles-" she gasped, trying to kill her laughter, " _Stiles_ fought Klaus?"

"I don't appreciate the disbelief in your voice," Stiles called.

Lydia grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, Stiles fell into the room, quickly straightening and clearing his throat. "I don't want to argue but I have proof, that guy is crazy."

"It wasn't Klaus," Caroline was sure.

"It was! I'm positive! It was the same guy that was at the coffee shop-" Stiles cut off, panic filling his eyes when he realized what he had said.

"You were at the coffee shop?" her voice was quiet but Stiles had the good sense to look afraid.

"I didn't- I wasn't trying to eavesdrop," Stiles said hurriedly.

"Did you not mean to tell Lydia about my conversation?"

"No- I mean yes, but no," Stiles stuttered, "This whole rant is coming from what happened when I saw him."

"What happened, Stiles?" Caroline demanded, her anger shifting from the scrawny smartass to the hybrid. "What did he say?"

"Nothing," Stiles said, his eyes widened further if that was even possible. Lydia's mouth dropped open, Scott had the same shocked look as his best friend.

"What?" Caroline hissed.

"Your eyes," Lydia whispered.

Caroline froze, taking deep breaths to try and push down her vampire side. "Lydia-"

Her cousin held up a hand, silencing whatever explanation Caroline wanted to give. She stared at her for a long time, her green eyes shimmered with betrayal and what Caroline could have sworn was grief. Maybe it was, maybe Caroline was already dead to her.

Then she spoke quietly, her voice sounded like she was on the edge of tears but her eyes remained clear, "I guess death runs in the family."

With that she turned and walked away, head held high, her steps sure. Lydia never faltered, she had always been stronger than Caroline, or maybe it was just that she feared looking weak more than Caroline did. Whatever the reason Caroline envied it in that moment as tears began tracing down her face. She broke down into sobs in front of Scott and Isaac, not Stiles though, he had followed Lydia immediately. She wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed that Klaus hadn't killed him.

* * *

"Mikaelson!" Caroline roared much like Lydia had that morning, walking into the house without knocking. She hadn't gone to class after her fight with Lydia, she wouldn't be able to focus anyway and would most likely end up taking her irritation out on an innocent bystander, so she came here, to take her anger out on a bystander that definitely wasn't innocent.

"Which one, love?" the voice was British but much less serious than Klaus'.

She looked up at the dark haired man standing on the stair landing overlooking the foyer. "Kol," her voice didn't betray the twinge of fear that she felt at the sight of him.

"Right here," he smirked.

"Where's your brother? Klaus," she added before he could say anything else sarcastic or twist her words.

"Guess."

"I'm not joking," she snapped.

"Good because you only have three guesses."

She huffed in irritation. "Is he here?"

"Specify, big house," he waved his hand, looking at the ceiling, "I swear if you were on the top floor behind a closed door..." his dark eyes met hers, the playfulness disappeared from his tone, "you wouldn't hear anyone in the foyer, even if they screamed."

"Kol, where is Klaus?" Caroline couldn't keep the slight tremor of fear from her voice.

He tilted his head as he studied her, something predatory in his eyes, like a wolf who had spotted an injured lamb. Her blood ran cold at his next words, "Not here."

Caroline flashed towards the door, she never reached it. She was thrown into the wall, she lay gasping on the floor as she held her side, the ribs that had broken would heal within hours, it still hurt. His foot hitting the already broken bones hurt worse.

"I intended to kill Jeremy first, but since I plan on killing you all I suppose the order in which it happens is unimportant." Kol said, lashing out again. She screamed as shards of bone pierced through her skin.

"Now that doesn't look comfortable," he said casually as he crouched next to her, pushing one of the exposed bones back into her side. Her breath shuttered painfully as the piece of bone cut into her stomach.

"It wasn't me," she gasped in pain.

"What was that?" he said, grabbing another one of the bones and jerked it from her body.

She clenched her teeth and managed to keep herself from screaming again. "I-" she swallowed hard, "I had nothing to do with your death."

Kol stared at her for a long moment before bursting into laughter. Not sarcastic, or cruel either, genuine laughter. It might have been a nice sound if he hadn't just ripped out one of her freaking ribs.

"I keep hearing about Caroline. Selfless, loyal Caroline," he leaned in his voice dropping conspiratorially, "Don't worry, I won't tell Nik you're actually just a self preserving coward."

"Kol?" Caroline looked up at the soft voice, a girl stood on the stair landing above them. Dressed in only a button up barely long enough to cover the top of her thighs, with her long dark hair falling in waves over her shoulders she looked like she had just walked out of a cologne commercial.

She appeared unconcerned by the blood, either she was compelled or some sort of supernatural herself. Light brown eyes met Caroline's, and she felt relief when she saw no anger in them, at least as much as was possible when a psychotic maniac was next to you.

"Yes, darling?" he answered, his eyes never leaving the vampire in front of him.

The girl studied Caroline for a moment as if wondering if she was worth intervening for. "Come back to bed," she finally said.

Kol stayed where he was, cold hatred still glittered in his eyes but after a tense moment he said quietly, "Yes, darling."

In a blur he was gone. The girl turned to follow him up the stairs at a more human pace, but paused and said over her shoulder, "You should be leaving now."

Caroline didn't need to be told twice, she stood, almost falling back down from the pain that exploded in her side from the movement but managed to stay on her feet. She stumbled out of the house to her car, she fell into the drivers seat, only noticing how badly her hand was shaking when she tried to put the key in the ignition.

"This is the worst day," she murmured to herself.

* * *

Davina shut the door, crossing her arms and raising her brows as she waited for an explanation. When he didn't offer one she sighed, "I thought we had an agreement."

"I didn't kill her," Kol said.

"But you were going to."

"Good observation," he snapped. She was disappointed that he didn't deny her accusation, but she wasn't all that surprised either. In the past week she had learned quickly that behind the sardonic humor and devilish smirk he had a horrible temper.

She walked across the room, she climbed onto the bed behind him, wrapping her arms around him and resting her chin on his shoulder. "You promised."

"She falls into extenuating circumstances," he inveighed.

"Alright, what did she do?"

"Now that is not a story I feel like sharing with you, especially now when there are so many better things to do," he turned his head to kiss her.

She pulled away from him, annoyed at him for trying to distract her. "Tell me," she insisted.

He sighed, "I died, and she is partially responsible."

"Died? Like when you transitioned?"

"No," he said, "I told you that was a very long time ago, long before the blonde was born. They killed me, about a year ago I suppose, time gets a little fuzzy on the Other Side."

Davina stared at him, obviously vampires were all undead but the thought that he had been _dead_ dead was terrifying. "How-"

"How am I alive?" he smirked, "I suppose death just didn't suit me."

She rolled her eyes but couldn't help smiling, he was going to be the death of her.

"So?"

"So what?" she mumbled into his shoulder.

"Am I forgiven for my... mishap?"

Davina would have to explain what things counted as "mishaps" but for the moment she was appeased by his decent excuse. "I really shouldn't forgive you so easily," she said, slipping off the bed to stand in front of him.

"I won't-" he broke off as the white button up hit the floor.

"But you're right," Davina smiled, "There are much better things to do in this bed."

"Davina Claire," her breath caught at the intensity in his dark eyes, a slow smile curved his lips, "You are the best part about being alive."


	17. Take This To The Grave

**A\N: I know Davina was only fifteen or sixteen during the harvest in the show, but in this story she's seventeen\eighteen, I haven't entirely decided on an exact age but somewhere in that range. Thanks for reading.**

•

 **"I give myself very good advice**

 **But I very seldom follow it."**

 **Alice In Wonderland**

 **Lewis Carroll**

"I'm not talking to you," Lydia said as soon as she answered her phone.

"That just seems ridiculous," Stiles said, "and let me tell you why, I know if I hadn't told you about Caroline you would have been angry, and now you think you're angry because I did, when really you're just angry that Caroline didn't tell you herself." she heard him take a deep breath, having said his speech in a rush to avoid her cutting in.

"How am I supposed to do this? She lied, she's sleeping with serial killers."

" _Killer_ , singular, to be fair."

"Why wouldn't she tell me?" Lydia said, her eyes beginning to sting. "We used to tell each other everything."

"Not to be insensitive, I'm totally on your side and everything but... have you told her you're an incarnation of death? Or are you the only one allowed to have secrets?"

She paused as the words sunk in. "Shut up, Stiles," she muttered, hanging up on him.

Lydia sat there in her room for a long moment trying to push Stiles words from her thought, but as always, he had a way of saying exactly what would get to her, in a stuttered and awkward way but effective all the sane. She stood and pulled on her shoes, grabbing her purse and headed for the door. Time to have a heart to heart with her undead cousin.

* * *

Caroline stepped out of the bathroom, the air in her room cold against her skin after the hot water of the shower. She looked up and yelped.

"Damn it, Klaus," she said, putting a hand to her chest, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk, heard you got into quite a tiff with that Lydia girl."

She rolled her eyes. "And you just happened to hear that?"

"Have you thought about sitting down and talking your issues out? I've heard from a reliable source that that can be quite effective."

She shook her head, huffing an annoyed laugh. "I'm so not talking to you about this."

"Why not?" he leaned against her desk, folding his hands in front of him. "I dare you."

"You can't bait me into a conversation."

"Since when?"

Caroline went to the closet and started looking for an outfit, ignoring his comment and his existence for that matter.

"Now, sweetheart, if there's anyone who would understand family drama it's me."

She turned back to him, arms crossed. There was a long moment of them simply staring the other down, neither willing to back down first.

"Unfortunately I can't dagger away my problems," the comment was biting enough that, despite her speaking first, she had not necessarily lost the silent argument.

Klaus voice was calm but she could heard the rage simmering behind the words. "But if someone was to turn her you could let her desiccate for a century or so."

Caroline seethed. "If you go anywhere near her-"

"You'll what?" he said. "What do can you really do to me?"

She was silent for a long moment. "It's always about control, isn't it?" she said quietly.

He shook his head, his smile said he was done with conversation.

Like hell he was. "It is! And you can't stand that I won't let you control me."

"Caroline, you're being ridiculous."

"It's true, I'm a challenge," she spat the word. "A conquest. You don't want to be with me, you just want to control me-"

"Caroline." Klaus tried to cut her off, but now that she had started the words didn't stop.

"You're obsessive! You only want me because I said you couldn't have me-"

"Love-"

"You don't even really want me. You don't love me!"

He grabbed her arms, shaking her. "You don't get to say that!" he shouted. "Why do you refuse to accept that my affections for you are genuine?"

"Because it's- it's just ridiculous!" Caroline insisted.

"Why? Why is it so damn unbelievable?" he demanded, his grip on her arms loosened but he didn't let go.

"Because it is!" she yelled. "After all these years, all the people you've met, why me? What is so special about me?"

Klaus paused, his hands falling back to his sides. "I see, so that's what this about."

Damn it! "This is about you!"

"No, it isn't," his voice sounded soft after all the yelling. "You can't believe I care for you because you can't believe anyone could."

She froze, trying to frown on her face as his words ran through her head, hitting every insecurity she had ever felt. "I have people who care about me, people who aren't complete sociopaths."

Klaus ignored her insult. "You're afraid, aren't you?" he said, his voice dropping to a soothing purr.

"I'm just not stupid enough to believe someone like you actually cares about me for no reason."

"Does anyone have a reason?"

Caroline shook her head, the conversation was getting out of hand, she should just tell him to leave. "For what?"

"For falling in love."

* * *

Klaus watched Caroline freeze at his words. He could understand why, all the time he had spent chasing after her never had he actually said it.

But even through her shock he could still see the disbelief in her eyes. "You're saying that after a millennium of not caring about anyone but yourself, you just decided I was the one?"

"I didn't decide anything, trust me. Never would I have chosen to have such a weakness. In all honesty I still don't understand why it was you... But I know it is."

"And when did you realize this?" she crossed her arms, it was obvious she was still trying to convince herself he didn't mean it. "Or did this sudden epiphany just come to you?"

"Actually it was the day you died from a wolf bite, the second time."

She seemed surprised he had an actually answer but she covered it quickly as she rolled her eyes. "Did you like having me at your mercy?"

"No," he said, hoping she would understand he was serious. "I watched you lie there, dying. I wanted you to die Caroline." he hated the hurt that flashed across her face but he needed to tell her the truth. "You made me feel weak, I finally decided I just had to get rid of that weakness all together, hurting Tyler was the easiest explanation for why you had to die. I thought I could just get rid of you and get on with my life. Then your eyes closed, I tried to wake you up but you didn't move. I remember when I finally got it through my head that you would be gone, that I would never get to see you smile again or hear your voice, and something in me broke. That's when I realized why I felt so powerless when it came to you, I realized I would do anything for you, even leave you, if that was what you wanted. Because I love you, Caroline."

She just stood there, one of her hands still holding the towel so tightly her knuckles turned white. She shut her eyes, and her lip trembled as she took deep breaths like she was about to cry.

She was finally showing an emotion besides rage but Klaus wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing, after all, he didn't make a habit of confessing his love for people.

He stood in front of , cupping her face in his hands. "Caroline?"

She shook her head slightly, keeping her eyes shut.

"Caroline, love, open your eyes," he implored.

She didn't.

"Open your eyes," he ordered softly, watching her shiver before her eyes opened and she looked up at him.

"I'll leave if you want me to, but I need you to tell me if that's what you want." he said, his thumbs brushed back and forth across her cheekbones, he relished in the feeling, knowing she would soon tell him to get out.

The soft expression faded as anger sparked in her eyes. "You don't get to do that."

"I thought honesty was a virtue," he joked dryly.

"That's not what I mean," she growled in irritation. "You don't just get to say- you can't just say that then leave me again."

"You told me to leave," Klaus reminded. Of all the things she could be angry at him for this certainly wasn't one of them.

"No! You left, and then you came back and said you would leave-"

"And you told me to never come back, do you recall that, love?" his hands fell from her face, he wouldn't be blamed for something he had never wanted to do.

"You disappeared for weeks!" her voice broke. "You didn't even say goodbye."

"How was I supposed to?" he growled, "I wouldn't have been able to walk away-"

"But you did," she spat, the veins under her eyes faded in and out of sight as her emotions began to get the better of her.

"Because you said that's what you wanted, that that would make you happy, and that's all I want, Caroline. I want you to be happy."

She took a shaky breath, her voice cold and steady when she spoke again, "Thanks for that."

"Damn it," he hissed under his breath before he said, "What did you want me to do?"

"I wanted you to fight for me! For us!" she shouted, her voice shaking with rage and another emotion he couldn't quite place. "But you didn't, you just walked away."

"I fought every day!" he roared. "You didn't want me!"

"I didn't- I couldn't-" she looked away from him, "I wanted to believe you, and that's why I didn't."

Klaus huffed in irritation. "And what does that mean?"

"I've wanted to be the one, okay? It's all I really ever wanted when I was human, and that's why I got hurt so many times. I promised myself when I became a vampire that I would never be that desperate girl again-"

"Desperate is not a word I would use to describe you."

"But I used to be," Caroline looked up at him. "Everything you said and did, it was all perfect, I used to dream about a guy saying things you say to me, and it scared the hell out of me. Because never had I dreamed about my perfect guy being a murderer."

"I see."

"No! You don't, I wanted to believe you, but the last time I believed someone that said they loved me, I ended up a personal blood bag. You were everything I wanted, and that's why I couldn't let myself want you."

"Your logic is questionable."

She rolled her eyes heavenward, like she needed strength from a divine force to deal with him. "True love changing people? It's a fairytale, people only change if they want to. Love isn't a magical solution, and you didn't want to change, Klaus. But I did, I want to be a good person, even if that means I have to give up something I want."

"Caroline," he grit his teeth when his voice shook.

"Then you did change, I'm not saying you were a saint or anything, but you were different and I let myself think that maybe, just maybe, there was a chance for us," she closed her eyes. "Then you left, and I remembered all the terrible things you'd done because it was easier to deal with losing a monster than losing the person I know you can be." a tear slipped from her lashes, she lifted her hand to wipe it away but he caught her wrist. His thumb swiped away the tear.

She closed her eyes, a tremor ran through her as her breath caught. He brushed his thumb over her lips. "What do you want? Right now, in this moment, what do you want?" his mouth almost brushed against hers as he spoke.

Her eyes opened and she looked up at him with her soul piercing gaze for a long moment before she whispered, "I want you."

He lurched forward, his hand tangled in her gold hair as he kissed her. Klaus wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her against him while he continued his frenzied attack on her mouth.

Caroline melted into the kiss, the hand that wasn't holding her towel settled on his arm.

She jumped when a knock came from downstairs. Klaus growled at the interruption, they couldn't have waited to see her until tomorrow?

* * *

Caroline felt sorry for who ever was at the door as she saw Klaus' eyes flash yellow. She tried to shift her focus to the person downstairs but her senses were filled with Klaus. She thought about just ignoring them, the others had their own keys, and if Stiles wanted to bug her some more about vampires he could damn well wait until tomorrow- then she caught the faint scent of Louboutin perfume.

"It's Lydia," she grabbed her robe from its hook on the door, tying it around her quickly. "I'll be right back. Stay here."

He raised his brows at her order.

"I need to talk to her," she explained, flicking her wrist in an I-don't-have-time-for-this gesture. "Just stay here."

"While I do take quite a bit of pride in my wolf heritage, I am not a dog and it would do you well not to order me around as such," he said, though there was more amusement in his voice than irritation.

"I'm not _ordering_ "—she absolutely was—"I'm asking you."

"To wait until you have time for me?"

She moved forward, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her chin up defiantly. "We still need to talk."

"I believe we've talked enough," he smirked, grabbing the belt on her robe and pulling her closer.

The knocking came again. "I have to talk to her."

He shrugged as he stepped back. Klaus folded his hands behind his back and smirked at her. "I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

Bonnie wandered down the street of the small downtown of Beacon Hills. They had all decided to give Caroline some space, Matt and Jeremy were shooting in the woods—because that was one hundred percent legal—and Elena was staying at Damon's apartment since he refused to stay at the lake house with the rest of them. She had no idea where Stefan was, probably sneaking off to check up on Caroline.

And that left Bonnie alone, which is how she found herself exploring the town. It was nice, bigger than Mystic Falls but not so much so that it lost the small town feel.

She glanced across the street and froze in her tracks. A car drove by half a second later and the man she had thought she had seen wasn't there. She shook her head with a huffed self deprecating laugh.

"Hello, love."

She gasped, jumping away from the man that had appeared beside her. "Damn it," she held a hand to her chest, her heart pounded at an almost painful speed. She was going to have a heart attack before she was thirty if she kept dealing with vampires.

"Sorry, didn't mean to sneak up on you."

Yes he did, she glared at him. "What are you doing here, Enzo?"

Enzo smirked as he raised a brow, "Enjoying the scenery."

Her mouth twisted with disgust. She started walking again, she didn't have the patience to deal with his impudent comments.

"Now, love, let's not be rude," Enzo kept pace with her.

She didn't look at him, but she could _hear_ his stupid smirk. "Rude would have been giving you an aneurism on sight."

"Hmm, I suppose that's a valid point," he was quiet for a moment before he spoke again, his voice lost it's normal arrogance, "How have you been?"

"Caroline's fine."

"I didn't ask about Caroline."

She paused at the street corner, waiting for the pedestrian light to turn green. "Read between the lines."

"I'm going to assume nothing horrible has happened, I mean you're being rude but no more so than usual."

Turn green! "I'm only being rude because you're annoying me."

"And I will gladly stop doing that," Enzo moved in front of her, "Tell me how you've been."

She glared at him, considering walking past him without answering, but then he would just follow her... "Fine."

Enzo smiled slowly. "Was that so hard?" he turned and walked in the opposite direction. "See you around, Bennett."

She really hoped not. The light finally changed and she continued on her way, the more distance between her and him the better.

* * *

Lydia tried for an I-call-a-truce smile. "Hey, Care."

"Hey," she smiled back nervously. "Come in."

Lydia walked in, her nails tapping nervously on the side of the small, white, bejeweled cooler in her hands. Caroline smiled when she saw it, "Is that the same cooler from your Little Mermaid picnic set?"

"Yeah," her smile came more naturally, "Do you remember we would have picnics in the backyard every time we visited each other?"

"You always insisted on having real tea."

"And you would only accept scones, never cookies."

Caroline laughed. "Bring it as a reminder I wasn't always a monster, that deep down I'm still a pretentious seven year old in a tiara?"

"No, I brought it to show you you're my family, even if you are a little different now," she took a deep breath, swallowed her nervousness and set the cooler on the table against the wall in the foyer. Lydia flipped open the lid.

Her cousin's eyes widened as she saw the blood bags. There was a nerve-racking moment of silence before she grinned slightly, "Should I be worried about how you got these?"

Lydia flashed a relieved smile. "It involved a very awkward conversation with Scott's mom and a promise to donate at the next blood drive."

Caroline's eyes welled up with tears, "Thank you."

Lydia heaved an overdramatic sigh, crossing her arms. "Well, I couldn't have my cousin turning into some creepy supernatural outcast."

Caroline threw her arms around her, "I missed you," Caroline sniffled, "I wanted to tell you, I just- I couldn't, Lyds, I couldn't drag you into the whole vampire mess."

"Yeah," lydia laughed breathily, "Scott took care of that for you."

"I'm going to have a talk with that boy," her cousin decided, pulling away from the hug to place her hands on Lydia's shoulders. "I'm glad you know."

"I actually have something to tell you..." The feeling flickered through her mind, she looked sharply towards the stairs. A man stood there, the one from the photo Stiles had dredged up from whatever creepy websites he stumbled upon.

She could feel the death that followed him like a shadow. So much death, it was like... like the way Stiles had felt when the Nogitsune had possessed him.

Lydia's first instinct was to run, but she kept herself from doing that, barely. Caroline looked nervously between them, her hands fidgeted with the tie on her silky robe.

It's for Caroline, she reminded herself. Lydia smiled tightly, "I'm Lydia, you must be Klaus."

The man stepped forward, he gave her a charming smile, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lydia."

"You too," she held out her hand.

He reached out to shake her hand but the instant her hand touched his the world blurred as she fell to the floor, ripped from the reality and thrown into a vision.

* * *

"You promised you'd tell me about my family," Hayley said.

"I told you about your mother," he attempted to deflect the subject.

"You told me she was a powerful alpha and that I should be proud to share her blood," she said, "but what happened to her? I know my parents are dead, but did I have any siblings or cousins? Is anyone in their pack still alive?"

Elijah smiled slightly as he listened to the girl spit questions at him. "You know more than you did before," he reminded her lightly.

"Are they all dead?" she asked with an undertone of resignation.

"No," he answered honestly, hoping to use this fact as leverage.

She sat straighter in the metal coffee shop chair, "Who- how-" she sighed in frustration at her own stuttering, "What are their names?"

"That," Elijah said, "is information I will gladly give you, if you'll agree to go back to the Nemeton with me."

"I'm not going back to that damn tree," Hayley had been adamant about the subject.

"Did you see something?"

"No," she grit out, he had learned quickly that patience was not a virtue she possessed.

"If you saw nothing why are you so frightened to return?"

Hayley smiled at the blatant attempt at manipulation, "You really thought that was going to work?"

"I've found pride can be quite effective in getting people to do as I wish. If it isn't fear what is it that keeps you from the place?"

"Maybe I just don't want to," she said, "But even if I did have a reason I don't owe you an explanation."

"No, I suppose not," Elijah said, "Just as I don't owe you the information I have on your family."

Hayley sat silent and for a moment he thought she would cave, then she stood. "I'll figure it out myself, thanks anyway."

He considered bringing up the subject he, out of courtesy, hadn't yet broached. But it was possible she'd take it the wrong way, assume he was making a threat... and, of course, there was always the possibility she had no idea, he thought as he listened to the soft flutter of a second heartbeat coming from the young wolf.


	18. Tonight We're Burning Bridges

**AN: I just wanted to thank you guys so much for reading and reviewing!**

•

 **"But I must admit I miss you quite terribly.**

 **The world is too quiet without you nearby."**

 **Lemony Snicket**

Lydia stood somewhere in the forest... No, not somewhere, she realized. The Nemeton stood in front of her, as she stood there dark liquid began welling up from the cracks in the wood, running across the surface and spilling across the forest floor.

It was only as it touched the toe of her shoe, and she saw the red that leached into the white material, did she realize it was blood. She lifted her arms from her sides to see them coated in the sticky substance, she looked down, red was splattered across her blouse and skirt.

Lydia's attention was pulled from her ruined clothes to the body on the ground beside her, once she noticed it she noticed the others... Everywhere, the earth was carpeted in corpses, some already decayed past recognition. Others were so fresh it would have seemed possible they were sleeping if it weren't for the tingle in the back of her mind that told her each and every person around her was dead.

The Nemeton whispered to her and she lifted her gaze to it once again, but it had changed, now the blood had a source. Caroline's skin was ashen, her eyes empty.

Lydia stepped closer and saw the bloody mess of shredded flesh that had been her throat.

Her wrists were cut.

A gaping hole in her chest showed that her heart was missing.

Lydia looked up to see a man standing on the other side of the Nemeton.

He smiled.

She screamed.

* * *

Isaac grit his teeth, it felt like knives were pressing into his ears. It was only a few seconds before he caved and switched the transmitter off.

Before he had become a werewolf he had gotten migraines, that was kind of how it felt, except, like, a billion times worse.

The woods were strangely quiet, or maybe he'd just blown out his ear drums. Yup, definitely damaged his hearing, he thought as the volume of the world around him increased as his healing kicked in.

 _Snap_. Isaac whirled around, watching the tree line for any sign of another person.

Nothing.

It might have been a deer, he reasoned. But the paranoia would make focusing hard, so he pocketed the transmitter and turned to leave the small hollow he'd been practicing in.

The sound of leaves crunching made him turn back to the trees. "I'm not in the mood to play games," he warned, letting his eyes flash gold.

 _Crunch_.

"Im not joking," Isaac growled, "I swear, Stiles, if that's you I'm going to-" the threat died in his throat as he watched the person step into the clearing.

"Isaac?" she whispered. Her gold blonde hair was tangled, leaves and dirt stuck in it like she had slept on the ground. Her dark shirt was torn, one of her pant legs ripped from hip to knee. She was a mess, he had never been so happy to see someone in his life.

"Erica," he breathed.

* * *

Caroline watched her cousin begin to fall, and ran forward to catch her before she hit the floor.

"Lydia?" she sunk to the floor, letting Lydia down gently on the floor.

Her heartbeat was steady.

"Lydia," Caroline shook her shoulder.

She was still breathing.

"Lydia!" She jumped as a hand touched her shoulder, looking up at Klaus. "What is this? What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know," he admitted.

"Lydia," she said, panic clawing at her throat, "Lydia, Lydi-"

Her cousin gasped as she jackknifed into a sitting position. Her hazel eyes focused on Caroline for a moment. "Call Scott," she whispered before her eyes rolled back and she went limp, falling against Caroline's shoulder.

* * *

Scott sat on his couch, Stiles sprawled across the living room floor, beer in hand. His best friend had decided to drown his sorrow in alcohol and pizza.

The door opened and his mom came in, exhausted from a twelve hour shift. She stopped in the doorway, her hands on her hips as she saw the cans Stiles had stacked into a tower on the floor next to him.

"Boys! What would make you think this is okay?"

"Hey, Melissa," Stiles greeted, almost managing to sound like he wasn't completely smashed.

"He got into a fight with Lydia," Scott offered already knowing it wouldn't be enough to save him from the lecture about underage drinking.

"That doesn't mean you can get drunk!" she turned to Stiles. "How did you even get those?"

"I have my ways," Stiles said, he raised his eyebrows and wiggled his fingers.

"I'm telling John about this," she said.

"Since when are you a nark?" Stiles set the newly empty beer can on the top of his tower.

"Since you decided to get drunk on my living room floor." she started to pick up the stack of cans then stopped, shaking her head at her own actions. "You"—she pointed at Stiles— "clean it up."

She turned and left the room, grumbling about their behavior. Halfway up the stairs she yelled down at them, "Drink some water!"

"Yes, mother dearest!" Stiles called after her.

Scott shook his head, grabbing his buzzing phone from the coffee table. "Hey, Lydia-"

"Scott!" Caroline's panicked voice came through the phone. "Scott, she— she collapsed! I don't know what to do. _What do I do_?"

Scott sat up. "Whoa, calm down. Is she breathing?"

"Yes, but she won't wake up, should I—?"

"Don't wake her up!" Scott almost yelled. Great, he thought, that's really going to help her keep calm.

"Why?" Caroline demanded. "Scott, what the hell is going on?"

Scott slid off the couch wondering if Stiles was sober enough to take with him or if he would have to leave without him. He shook his friend's shoulder while he tried to think of a reasonable explanation for Caroline. "Well, uh, she has a condition."

"Who?" Stiles asked.

Scott pointed to his phone.

Stiles brow scrunched in confusion. "Your phone is a she?"

"Shut up," Scott snapped.

"Excuse me?" Caroline said.

Leaving him it was, Scott couldn't deal with a drunk Stiles and an upset Caroline. "Not you. Look, I'll be right there. Wait, where are you?"

"The lake house," she said.

"Stay there, don't do anything. Oh, and if she screams—"

"Screams?"

"Yeah, tell me if she does that," Scott hung up. He grabbed the keys to his bike and called up the stairs that he was leaving. Scott pretended not to hear his mother's protest and ran out of the house.

* * *

Davina groaned, pulling her pillow over her head to block out the ringing from her cell phone. There was nothing more annoying than the generic ring of... of a burner phone. Davina threw aside the pillow, sitting up fast enough to make her vision swim, she grabbed blindly for the phone she kept in the drawer of the bedside table.

She answered, hesitating a moment. "Hello?"

"Hello," Marcel mimicked in a serious tone. "I'm sorry, I thought I was calling someone else, maybe you know her? Brown hair, attitude, goes by Davina."

She rolled her eyes. "Haha, you're hilarious."

"I know." he sobered. "How are you? Really?"

"Really? Good," she said, realizing just how true that was. "I'm happy here. I don't have to hide, or be scared to leave the house. The people here are nice." she added, thinking of one person in particular, but she wasn't sure how to tell Marcel about him.

"I'm glad you like it there," he said, before adding quietly, "I'm trying to fix things."

"I know," she smiled even though he couldn't see it. "I met someone."

"Please tell me 'I met someone' doesn't mean what I think it means."

"I have a boyfriend," she clarified.

"You've been there for two days!" Marcel groaned. "How are you already seeing someone?"

"I've been here longer than that, like, almost a month."

He sighed. "Is he a witch?"

Might as well bite the bullet. "He's a vampire."

Silence. "Marcel?"

"What are you thinking?" Marcel seethed. "I sent you there so you could be safe—"

"I am!" Davina reassured, or tried to at least.

"How did you meet this guy?" Marcel demanded. "Who is he?"

"His name is Kol," Davina said, ignoring his first question.

"How did you meet?" he pressed.

"I... met him in the woods," she admitted grudgingly.

"You met this guy in the woods!? Why were you in the woods?"

"I heard voices." Honest was the best policy, right?

"You heard— for Christ's sake, Davina!" Apparently not.

"I didn't get hurt," she said, then remembered that wasn't entirely true. "I mean, I did but—"

"He hurt you?"

"No!" This was going even worse than she had thought it would. "I fell, he gave me his blood."

"Be careful, kid. I'm not going all the way to Connecticut just to kick some punk's ass."

Right, Connecticut. The subtle reminder that they were possibly being listened to was enough to dampen her happiness at hearing his voice.

"You'd like him," she said confidently. "Maybe not his taste in music, but you'd like him."

"He listen to Beethoven too?"

"No, something you would like even less."

"Don't tell me he listens to Taylor Swift."

She giggled. "No, _Icelandic Rock_."

Marcel burst out laughing, Davina felt a wave of homesick hit her at the sound. She hadn't had time to miss home, the whole way to California she had been too scared to think about anything but getting to Deaton, then once she found Deaton she met Kol and he kept her from spiraling into a deep, dark pit of despair. But now the happy sound made her ache for New Orleans and the attic bedroom and her canopy bed, but mostly, it made her miss Marcel.

She felt her throat tighten as her eyes began to burn, she took a shaky breath to try and stop the tears before they started.

"Hey! None of that, I didn't call to make you cry."

"Well you did, you jerk," she sniffled.

"Are you going to school?"

"No," she paused. "Can I?"

There was a minute of silence, Davina tried not to get her hopes up, it was dangerous, she should draw as little attention as possible... Marcel sighed. "If you really want to, Allen can get the paperwork you need," Davina squealed in excitement. "But! I want you registered with the most generic name possible, you understand? Smith or Jones, if I find out you're using Sinclair or something—"

"I won't! Thank you, Marcel. I'll be careful, I promise." She was so excited she didn't notice the first tap on her window.

"You better be, if you get in any kind of trouble, I mean any at all, I will lock you in a literal tower."

She rolled her eyes but the stupid grin wouldn't leave her face. "Okay, I'll be good."

 _Thunk_. A pebble bounced off the window pane.

She jumped, the smile came back when she realized who it must be. "Hold on."

"Don't wake that poor man up, it can wait until morning."

She shook her head. "Kol's outside."

"It's midnight there, what does he think he's doing?"

"Call down," she slid out of bed. "He hasn't even been invited in."

Marcel muttered something under his breath before he spoke loud enough for her to hear. "He better not be."

She unlocked the window and pushed it up. She winced as it squeaked against the wooden window frame.

As she had thought Kol stood in the side yard, smirking up at her. She pressed the phone into her shirt though he would probably still be able to hear everything. "Do you know what time it is?" she called quietly.

"Exactly," he glanced down at his phone. "Eleven forty-two. Come on, we're going on an adventure."

Her smile grew, late night adventures with Kol could be anything from a rave in an abandoned warehouse to watching the moon rise from the cliff that overlooked the town.

"I'm on the phone, could you wait a minute?"

"Should I be concerned? Do you have another suitor calling?"

Davina snorted. "Just wait a minute, it's not like you're getting any older."

She brought the phone back to her ear. "Sorry, I—"

"Davina," he said, voice deadpan, "what did you say his name was?"

"Kol Smith."

"Spell it."

"K-o-l."

"Do not leave that house," his voice became almost panicked. When had Marcel ever panicked?

"Why? I'll be careful—"

"Davina Clair! He is not who you think he is."

She turned away from the window so Kol wouldn't see her expression and have the urge to listen in. "What are you talking about?" she asked quietly.

"His name isn't Smith," Marcel said, "it's Mikaelson. Kol Mikaelson."

The phone slipped from her grasp, it hit the floor at her feet, she barely noticed. The Mikaelsons, the monsters Marcel had warned her about countless times. _'You're lucky you'll never have to deal with them'_ , she had never imagined them being anything like Kol. _'They make the coven look kind'_ , she had thought Kol was kind. _'They manipulate people, and throw them away when they're done'_ , how long until he was done?

"You okay, darling?" Kol called out, and now she couldn't help but hear something sinister in his playful voice.

No, she was not okay.

* * *

The sunlight was warm on Lydia's skin, strangely warm for the time of year. But, as she looked around, she realized it was summer, not fall.

She stood next to the lake house, it looked like it had been repainted recently. Laughter drew her attention to the lake shore. Isaac and Erica stood on the dock. That wasn't right... because Erica was dead.

A vision, she realized. Why she would see the past she wasn't sure, but the scene was too real to be a dream.

Erica threw her head back laughing and Lydia felt her heart lighten at the sound. Isaac looked happier than she had ever seen him, his smile wasn't smug or sardonic just... happy.

Stiles walked over to them, Lydia was surprised when Isaac didn't immediately look at him with complete and utter disgust. Maybe it was just a dream, when had those two ever gotten along?

Lydia drifted towards the water, hoping to catch some of the conversation. A dark haired girl, maybe a few years older than herself, ran past Lydia to the others. "Have you seen Elijah? We're play hide and go seek tag."

"Telling you would be cheating," Stiles said, "On a completely unrelated note, the boat house is nice this time of day."

She turned and ran towards the small building. Stiles turned in her direction, smiling warmly. "Hey, Lydia, need some help?"

Could he see her? Not that she hadn't interacted in visions before, but the girl had walked right past her—

"No, Stiles," Lydia heard her own voice come from behind her, "I do not."

Isaac tilted his head, looking just over her shoulder. "You sure? You're getting kind of top heavy."

That little... oh. Lydia saw herself, her stomach rounded with pregnancy. No, she was definitely not seeing the past.

* * *

Hayley walked out of the bar, sometimes she hated werewolf metabolism. Two hours and she wasn't drunk, but she _was_ nauseous.

She unlocked her car door, the keys slipped from her grasp when she pulled the door open. Even the small inconvenience was enough to annoy her. Hayley grabbed the keys, straightening she jumped when she saw Elijah suddenly stood in front of her.

"Not in the mood," Hayley growled.

Elijah glanced at the bar, looking speculative for a moment before he said, "How are you feeling?"

"If you're about to give me a don't drunk drive lecture, not drunk, and I really don't have time—"

"I didn't come here to argue with you," he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, holding it out for her to take, "I just wanted to give this to you."

She looked suspiciously at the paper. "What is it?"

"The name and last known location of your closest living relative."

She froze, Hayley looked at him, waiting for him to tell her whatever deal he was trying to make. "I'm not going to that tree."

"I'm not asking you to," he said.

She didn't entirely believe him, she half expected him to pull it out of her reach and give her an ultimatum. But he let her take the paper, she kept her mistrustful gaze on him as she unfolded the paper, an address and name were scrawled in elegant script.

It was such basic information.

It was more than she had ever had.

"Why are you giving this to me?" she asked quietly.

"I'm not you're enemy, Hayley," Elijah said, "I sincerely hope you realize that."

And just as suddenly as he had appeared he was gone. She looked down at the name again, he better not be screwing with her.


	19. No Sign Of a Remedy

•

 **"False hopes are more dangerous than fears."**

 **J. R. R. Tolkien**

Lydia's strawberry blonde hair was pinned back, her face almost free of make-up. The white dress she wore billowed around her in the breeze coming off the lake.

Lydia barely recognized herself, and it wasn't just the fact that she was knocked up, though that was a frightening addition to the strange scene.

Stiles just shook his head at her stubbornness.

"Aunt Lydia!" A child's voice rang out. Both Lydia's turned to see a young girl, maybe six or seven, run up the shore towards vision Lydia.

Aunt? The closest thing to a sister Lydia had was Caroline. Well, someone else had been a sister to her... but that wasn't a possibility anymore.

"Hope," her vision self smiled.

"Me and Ally found a frog," the girl, Hope, said proudly.

Ally? Lydia mentally reprimanded herself for the hope she had allowed herself to feel.

"I found it!" Another child, a little bit younger than Hope, came running, and Lydia felt her heart stop for a moment. The girl was practically a carbon copy of Allison.

"Well I caught it!" Hope argued, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a large brownish green frog.

"You can't keep animals in your pockets," vision Lydia told them, "it could get hurt."

Hope looked at vision Lydia like she had asked her to stand on her head.

"Why don't you go show your mom and dad and then let it go?" vision Lydia suggested to Hope.

"I want to show mom too!" Ally complained.

"You can wait to let it go until your parents get here," vision Lydia allowed.

"Dad!" Hope suddenly yelled, running past Lydia.

Lydia turned to see Hope showing off her frog to _him_. But the death she had felt lurking around him was gone, or faded at least, that much darkness didn't just disappear.

The sound of a car pulled her attention from the vampire to the driveway. A black SUV pulled into the driveway. Argent's, she was almost sure.

The driver's door opened and Lydia was surprised to see not Argent but Scott get out of the car. The passengers door opened, and she stepped out.

Lydia felt like she had to memorize every detail of her friend, had to sear this image into her mind before it all ended and she was once again gone.

Allison smiled at Lydia's vision self.

Tears burned her eyes as Lydia struggled to breathe with the lump in her throat. Her feet moved her towards her dead friend without conscious thought.

But Allison didn't notice her, she brushed past her to the vision. Lydia turned to see Allison embrace her mirror image.

It was such a happy scene to someone who didn't know better. But Lydia did know better, she knew the girl laughing with Stiles and Isaac was long dead, she knew that Klaus would never be free of the darkness, she knew that Allison Argent was dead and buried.

This was just a pretty picture of a life they could never have.

"It is a pretty picture, isn't it?" Lydia jumped as Allison addressed her directly. "But the Nemeton does not show you paths you can not take."

"The Nemeton?" Had she been at the...? No, she had been at lake house, with Caroline.

"Your power is rooted in the Nemeton, where your physical form rests is of little importance."

The voice was hers, but it wasn't at the same time. It held none of the warmth her friend's voice always had. "You aren't Allison."

"I am not. You already knew that."

"You're the Nemeton?" Lydia didn't know if she even wanted an answer.

"I am just a mouthpiece," Allison said. "A shard of a much larger power."

"You said..." she swallowed hard. "You said, all this"—she gestured widely— "was still possible."

"I did," she agreed but didn't elaborate further.

"How?" Lydia all but demanded. "How do I get this?"

She didn't trust this "power" the Nemeton claimed to be, but if there was even a chance she could have this life... She would make a deal with a Nogitsune to get this.

"I wish I could give you the answer," Allison's dark eyes shined with sympathy, "but this is a path you must find on your own."

"No," Lydia growled. "You can't just show me this then tell me to 'figure it out'."

"I hope you find your way," Allison murmured.

Before she could reply Allison reached out and touched Lydia's temple. Suddenly she was in the lake house, lying on the floor, Caroline's panicked eyes looking down at her.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked, helping her sit up. "What did you see?"

"See?" Klaus and Caroline asked at the same time.

"You didn't scream," Scott assured her.

"I didn't see death," she agreed softly.

"Good," Scott smiled suddenly, "I didn't want to deal with that on a school night."

* * *

Isaac sat with Erica, her hand tightly gripped in his as if she might disappear if he let go. "I'm fine," she tried to reassure him.

"Yeah, well, you were also dead for almost a year, so I think we'll let Deaton have a look." Isaac said in his usual cavalier manner, but Erica could see the worry in his eyes.

"Okay," she relented. If it would make him happy she would do it.

Deaton didn't seem surprised when he walked into the animal clinic and saw them. Worried maybe, but not surprised.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Deaton questioned once they were in the examination room.

"Kali came into the vault... I thought the eclipse might've leveled the playing field. It didn't," she cleared her throat. "Next thing I know I'm waking up in the woods, my ears bleeding—"

"Sorry about that," Isaac put in.

"Then I found this dumbass playing with a transmitter, and here I am," she flashed a dazzling nothing-at-all-is-wrong smile.

Deaton didn't look convinced. "Where in the woods?"

She dropped the smile. "I don't know. I was kind of just happy to be _breathing_."

"Do you have somewhere to stay?"

Did she? Had they buried her body themselves? Was she just a missing person? Or had they set it up to look like an animal attack? Could she go home? She wanted to go home, she wanted to see her father.

"She does." Isaac said, cutting into her worried thoughts.

"Then I suggest you get some rest."

"That's it?" Isaac stood, gold faded in and out of his irises.

"There's nothing physically wrong with her," Deaton said, unaffected by Isaac's lapse of self control.

"What about mentally?"

" _Hey_!" she protested.

"You've been gone awhile, things have happened," Isaac defended himself. "I just want to make sure you won't get the impulse to slit my throat in my sleep."

"Well I'm having that impulse now," Erica snapped. She was done being poked at, she wanted to take a shower, put on comfortable clothes, and eat something really unhealthy.

"What if there's something wrong with you?"

"There is! I'm hungry and tired _and now_ I'm angry!" Her eyes flashed a bright gold and he growled in response.

"If you notice anything unusual in the next twenty four hours bring her back," Deaton said calmly, probably trying to calm them both down before they started a fight in his clinic.

* * *

Hayley stood in front of the loft door, it was early but not obnoxiously so. She hesitated a moment before knocking.

"Go away!" someone yelled, it was definitely a guy's voice.

"I need to see Derek Hale," Hayley called. When no reply came she pounded on the metal door. "I'll just keep knocking!"

She heard footsteps and stepped back as the door slid open. A very irritated man stood there, glaring at her. "What do you want?"

"Are you Derek?"

"Are you Megan Fox?" he rolled his eyes at her confusion. "No, believe me, I'm much better looking. What do you want?"

"I need to talk to Derek," Hayley insisted.

"Too bad," he started to close the door. Hayley caught it, pushing it open again.

She had not dealt with crazy Professor Shane, got twelve people killed, got hunted by Katherine and put up with two Originals just to be turned away by some snide jackass as soon as she found the person she'd been looking for half her life.

"I need to see him."

He stared at her for a long moment. "Come in."

* * *

"Banshee? Like 'scream foretells doom' banshee?" Caroline stared at her.

"Yes, it's more complicated than that but, yeah, basically," Lydia said.

Klaus stayed quiet but Lydia could see disbelief on his face. Not that she could blame him, she had denied the existence of all things supernatural at first.

"So your scream can just make someone drop dead?" her cousin asked, looking half concerned and half impressed.

"No," she said, "I don't control it. I sense death, sometimes I can get psychic premonitions... hence the dramatic collapsing."

Caroline nodded, looking lost for words.

"It's okay if you think it's creepy, we all do," Scott told her, breaking the tension as Caroline burst out laughing in response.

Lydia didn't miss the way the other vampire's eyes lingered on her cousin. For just a moment something in his expression reminded her of Stiles. It was silly, they looked nothing alike, they were nothing alike, but she couldn't help but be reminded of him as she looked at the murderous supernatural.

Maybe it was just the emotion, Lydia knew that emotion well though she rarely felt it herself. The man, however proud and dangerous he might have been, was lovesick.

* * *

Stiles woke up and immediately regretted every decision he'd ever made as pain spiked through his head.

"Get up!" Stiles groaned as Melissa yelled at him from the kitchen.

" _Shhh..._ "

"Head hurt?" her voice was closer, but at least she wasn't yelling. "Here."

Stiles opened his eyes and the sunlight through the window _burned_. He had forgotten how much hangovers suck. Squinting he saw Melissa holding out aspirin in her palm.

"Thanks," he muttered, swallowing the small tablets.

"Don't thank me yet, you still have to go to school."

Stiles threw his arm over his eyes, as if that could block out her words.

"Yeah, I know," Melissa patted his head before she stood and walked back into the kitchen. "I have to get to work, get to school."

"Do I have to?"

"I'll make you a deal, you go to school, I won't tell your dad about this."

"I'm up," he agreed, he pushed himself up and almost fell back to the floor as the room tilted around him.

He made it to the kitchen, he had left his backpack somewhere around here. Stiles pitched forward suddenly as his stomach turned, and retched into the sink.

Stiles decided that he had to fix things with Lydia, he couldn't do this every time he missed her, he'd die of alcohol poisoning, and that would be a pretty pathetic end after everything he had survived.


	20. The Kids Aren't Alright

•

 **"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree.**

 **The wounds remain.**

 **In time, the mind, protecting its sanity,**

 **Covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens.**

 **But it is never gone."**

 **Rose Kennedy**

The man who had answered the door hadn't said much since introducing himself as Peter. Hayley sat on the couch, the apartment around her very spartan, the only personal item she could see was the picture frame on the desk in front of the large window.

"How do you know him?" Peter finally asked.

Hayley didn't trust him, she didn't know why but she trusted her instincts. "It's complicated."

"Complicated?" he sat across from her in one of the two chairs on the other side of the coffee table. "That usual means one of three things," he held up a finger, "you're a crazy ex-girlfriend," a second finger, "he owes you money," a third, "or you're a hunter who wants him dead."

"None of the above," Hayley said.

"Well that's odd," Peter stood, wandering over to the desk and picking up the picture frame that she could now see held a photo of a girl that looked a hell of a lot like her. "I suppose that only leaves one possibility," he turned suddenly, throwing the metal frame at her, Hayley ducked and the frame buried itself into the couch back where her head had been. She growled, her eyes going yellow. "Long lost family member."

* * *

Stiles had been worried when Lydia wasn't in homeroom, but now, at the end of the day, he was panicked. She almost never missed school, she was too proud of her perfect grade point average to risk missing a test or forgetting to turn in homework.

Everything had been normal. It was the new history teacher's first day, and he hadn't tried to kill anyone. Like a normal teacher. Everything was normal, too normal. Like the calm before a storm.

Scott not answering his phone didn't help anything. "You could at least pick up! Or send me a text! Literally anything to reassure me your dead body isn't going to turn up in the creek." he hung up, another message in Scott's inbox.

He hurried across the parking lot towards his Jeep, stopping just in time to avoid getting hit by Isaac's Camaro. The passenger side window rolled down and Isaac leaned over the console to look at him.

"You and I need to have a talk," Isaac said casually, like he hadn't almost killed him.

"I'm really very busy, try again later," he went to walk around the car but Isaac inched the car forward, Stiles jumped back.

"I was thinking now."

Stiles looked to his Jeep, then to his phone, and back to Isaac. "Yup, now works."

* * *

Lydia had decided to take a personal day and catch up with Caroline. They sat in the kitchen, painting their nails and talking about their disastrous love lives.

"I made out with Scott once," Lydia said.

"Really?" Caroline said. "I thought you and Stiles were a thing."

"Why's that?" She said, focusing on the red nail polish instead of meeting Caroline's eyes.

"I don't know, just the way he acts, he seems like he really cares about you."

He does, Lydia thought, or at least he did.

"He used to have this huge crush on me when we were younger, but then Scott turned and I found out what I was and everything changed." For the better she sometimes believed, everything had gotten better since that horrible night on the lacrosse field. Of course there were times when she thought just the opposite, like when she stumbled upon dead bodies, or when she felt Aiden die, when they buried Allison...

"You didn't like him back?" Caroline's question shook her out of her thoughts.

"It's complicated," Lydia answered vaguely, she continued before Caroline could press. "What about you and Klaus?"

Caroline paused, looking up from her blue nails. "Complicated."

They both burst out laughing.

These were the kind of moments she had missed since she and Caroline had stopped talking. Things didn't seem so dark when she was laughing with her cousin.

* * *

Stiles sat in the ridiculously nice car— the car he was still sure Isaac had stolen. Isaac had been silent since Stiles got in and he drove them to an empty lot in a more rundown part of town.

Just before the tense silence became too much for Stiles to take Isaac spoke, "I know you're trying to bring Allison Argent back from the dead."

He said it so easily, using her full name like they had been acquaintances, like he hadn't cared about her at all, like her death hadn't almost destroyed him.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, trying to keep his voice as even as Isaac's.

"What did you do?" he growled.

Oh geez, he didn't want to die in this lot. "I didn't do anything."

Isaac ripped off his sunglasses and Stiles saw his eyes were gold. He grabbed the front of Stiles shirt. "Tell me what you did! I know it was you. It had to be you."

"I haven't done anything!" Stiles insisted. Isaac couldn't be crazy enough to kill him for something he hadn't done. Oh, who was he trying to kid? Yeah he could be.

"You must have! You tried to bring back Allison and messed up whatever creepy spell you found." he accused.

His claws began to tear into the fabric of Stiles shirt.

"I didn't try any spell!" he shouted. "I haven't found anything to bring her back yet."

Isaac finally released his shirt, pushing him back into his seat. Stiles winced as his bruised back hit the arm rest. Isaac took a deep breath and Stiles watched his claws disappear and his eyes dim back to their natural hazel color. "Get out."

"I'm sorry?"

"Get out of my car," he said.

He couldn't be serious. Stiles looked out the window at the abandoned buildings and barred windows of the residential houses, and back to Isaac. "You've got to be kidding me. You're going to leave me here?"

"What else would 'get out of my car' mean?" he slid his sunglasses back into place and looked straight ahead as he waited for Stiles to get out.

"You are just the worst," Stiles groused as he climbed out of the car, slamming the door behind him. "Absolutely awful."

"I know," Isaac glanced over at him. "You should get walking, I wouldn't want to be in this part of town at night."

Stiles watched the black car move down the road and out of sight.

"I'm going to burn every last one of his stupid scarves," he muttered, kicking a rock as he began the walk back to his house.

* * *

Hayley glanced towards the door, could she outrun him? If she knew for sure he was human she would have bolted, but he could be a wolf, or even a vampire.

"Don't," he had clearly seen her eyeing the door.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

Maybe Derek wasn't here because he had killed him, maybe he was going to kill her too.

"Your uncle, probably," Peter said, studying her quizzically for a moment before he asked, "How old are you?"

"Nineteen," she told him after a brief mental debate with herself over how much damage he could really do with that information.

He rolled his eyes. "Did anybody die in that damn fire," he muttered.

"Fire—?"

"Ten years ago the Hale family mansion burned, killing eight people— or seven since you're obviously not dead— supposedly leaving only three survivors, one of which was left in a catatonic state, doctors were sure he always would be."

Hayley was still ready to run, but she was getting information and until he stopped talking she was staying. "Was he?"

"Obviously not," he gestured to himself.

Oh, doctors must not have accounted for wolf healing. "Derek would be the other survivor, what about the third, who else survived?"

"Laura, your and Derek's older sister, my niece."

"Is she still here? In town?" She thought over his muttered comment again, had there been other survivors besides them?

"No."

"Where is she?"

"Dead," he said casually as he leaned against the desk, folding his hands in front of him. "I killed her."

* * *

Lydia and Caroline had decided to have a sleepover, they had invited Elena and Bonnie to join them but they had both opted to go with the guys to some party on the other side of town.

"I still have popcorn in my hair," Caroline laughed as she pulled a brush through her blonde hair.

"It's not my fault," Lydia said. "You totally started that."

Caroline shook her head. "Oh!" she said suddenly. "This is my favorite part."

"You can't sit with us!" They both said with the movie before falling into a fit of laughter.

"Is Mean Girls the official sleepover movie or something?"

"It's the official movie for everything," Lydia agreed.

A noise from outside made her freeze, she saw Caroline get the same worried look. Lydia plastered on a smile, "I'm sure it's just raccoons, I'll be right back."

She got up from the couch and headed for the back door.

Caroline caught her wrist. "Wait, what if it's not raccoons?"

She paused. "I'll scream really really loud," she shook off her cousin's hand and went through the kitchen to the back door.

Outside she saw the trash bin had been knocked over, guess it was just the freaking raccoons. She put the bin back in place and turned to go back inside, but before she could a hand covered her mouth.

They wore leather gloves so biting them wasn't an option, their other arm banded across her middle, pinning her arms to her sides.

"You going to scream, Lydia?" A feminine voice said, a voice that Lydia knew well. She should, she heard it often enough in her nightmares.

* * *

Matt stood next to Jeremy, the floor seemed to be moving under his feet. He hadn't had that much to drink, two cups of the watered down beer shouldn't make him that unsteady.

"Are you feeling weird?"

Jeremy looked at him. "Weird?"

"Yeah, like, dizzy," he leaned against the wall, trying to get the room to still.

"Dude, how many of those have you had?" Jeremy looked at the red cup in his hand.

"Not that many," he said. "You don't feel anything?"

"Haven't had any," Jer shrugged, "Elena assigned me designated driver."

"Huh." Matt glanced around and saw everyone looked okay, wasted, but okay.

His heart skipped a beat as he thought he saw— No, it wasn't possible... but it had looked so much like her.

Matt straightened. "I need some air," he muttered to Jeremy as he stumbled towards the nearest door out of the house.

The fresh air didn't help, in fact, he was almost sure it had made it worse.

He sunk to the ground, the dizziness growing. It was freezing out here, why did he feel like he was in an oven? Nausea hit him and he closed his eyes, hoping if the world stopped spinning he wouldn't throw up.

"Matty?"

That was her voice.

It couldn't be her.

She was the only person who ever called him that.

She was dead.

Matt opened his eyes and slowly looked up from the grass to the girl standing in front of him. Her dark hair fell loose around her shoulders, her brown eyes held that mischievous glint, a slight smile on her lips as she crouched in front of him. "You don't look so good, little brother."

"Vicki."

* * *

Damon felt strange, not vervain strange... Maybe he had just had too much to drink. Yeah, he decided, that must be it.

He pushed through the crowded house in search of Elena, he had just seen her how had she disappeared so quickly?

"Damon?" his brother's voice came from the hall to his right.

"What?" he said, scanning the crowd for his girlfriend.

The scent of blood hit him and he was almost afraid to look, but he did. Damon turned to Stefan, blood dripped from his mouth, the front of his shirt was soaked in it.

Oh, no, this was bad. Very, very, _very_ bad.

"What happened?" There had to be a good reason, this could not turn into another ripper blood binge.

"You happened," Stefan said, the black veins rippled over his face as his eyes darkened.

"What?"

"You did this," his baby brother hissed. "You made me a monster."

"I didn't— I didn't," Damon breathed, stumbling away from him. "I never meant to..."

"Damon." He jumped away from the new voice, turning to see Elena giving him a worried look. "Are you okay?"

"Stefan, he..." Damon looked around but his blood covered brother was gone. "We need to find him, now."

"Who?"

Damon whipped around to see Stefan, not a drop of red on him. "What the hell?

"What's going on?" Elena asked, looking more concerned by the second.

Well you should be concerned, sweetheart, you're dating a lunatic, he thought. "Nothing, just a little drunk." He needed to be a lot drunker.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course," he smirked, "I'm fine."

* * *

It was a nightmare, it had to be, Lydia thought as she stumbled through the dark woods, knife pressed to her back.

She was gone. Dead.

This couldn't be happening.

"You know, Lydia, you caused me an awful lot of trouble last time we met," Jennifer said.

"You died," Lydia hated herself for the tremor in her voice.

"I know, I don't know how I'm here, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth, right?"

"How long..." her voice gave out. She could barely breathe at this point, much less speak.

"How long have I been here?" Jennifer finished for her. "Long enough... Your cousin's undead, must be a relief not being the only freak in the family anymore."

"You sacrificed people, how am I the freak?" Lydia said, her voice shook but she kept it from breaking.

When she spoke again Lydia could hear the smile in her voice. "Do you know how rare your gift is? That kind of power, it could buy someone their place back in the land of the living."

"I thought I was just a girl who knew too much."

Lydia winced as the knife pressed harder into her back, drawing blood as Jennifer spoke in her ear. "Congratulations, Lydia, you're finally a worthy sacrifice."

Lydia ran through the options in her head, they were obviously headed for the Nemeton, she had to get away before they got there, she could just run and risk getting stabbed. She could try to get the knife away from her, but if Jennifer still had even half her abilities...

Before she could try anything she heard an unnatural growl behind them. "Get the hell away from her."

* * *

When Liv was younger she hadn't known why her older brother never played with their other siblings, but she was always glad for it, because it meant he spent more time with her. As she got older she noticed how differently he was treated, small things at first, like how their parents never hugged him, and then bigger things, like her father's disdain towards him. Even Luke disliked him.

But no matter how old she got she just didn't understand, he was a Gemini, a twin, and there was a very good chance he would be the next coven leader.

It was only on her fourteenth birthday did she finally get a clue. Liv's other brother Joey had just died in a car crash and the whole family was one giant emotion wreck. Her brother had gotten into a fight with their father, over what she never knew. Liv had hid in the hall as they argued, her father had attempted to hit him and he had caught his hand. He hadn't meant to, Liv could tell by the shock on his face as he stumbled away from their father. But he had, and Liv finally understood.

Kai was a siphoner.

She never brought it up, and he never knew she had any idea.

Tragedy struck their family multiple times over the next two years. Her sister died in a swimming accident, her other brothers died in a house fire, and finally her sister Hannah died a week before her eighteenth birthday when a car collided with her motorcycle.

Her father's disdain turned into something frighteningly similar to hatred. Liv even suspected he blamed Kai for the horrible accidents that had destroyed their family.

When she was sixteen the Merge became a reality. Obviously she had always known it would happen, they were Gemini, he was a twin, it was inevitable. But after so much loss, she didn't want to think about losing another sibling. And she hated herself because she knew Kai would win no matter how strong Jo was, and she felt just the smallest, darkest bit of gladness at that fact.

Kai had told her to stay home, that he didn't want her to see whatever happened. When had she ever listened to anyone?

She hid in the shadows between the trees at the edge of the clearing. From her place she could see both her siblings faces, Jo said something Liv couldn't hear, and Kai smiled.

Liv's stomach turned as she recognized that smile, it was the one he would give her when she got discouraged or scared, it was a smile of reassurance, and she suddenly knew he wasn't going win, he was going to relinquish his magic.

Before she could fully process that horrible fact loud chanting began on the other side of the clearing. Kai dropped Jo's hands as he grabbed his head, screaming in pain. She was confused, this wasn't how the Merge happened.

Joshua Parker pulled a device out of his pocket and everything clicked into place. She had only seen it in books, a key to a prison world.

Before she could think about what she was doing Liv ran into the clearing, screaming for Kai to run.

Her brother's eyes widened in fear as he saw her.

Liv was almost to him when someone grabbed her, holding her back as she struggled towards him. "Let me go!" she shrieked. "Kai! Kai, _run_!"

"Liv, stop," it was Jo's soft voice that spoke in her ear.

How could she do that to her twin? Kai collapsed to the ground, his eyes rolled back as he lost consciousness.

"Kai, kai," her voice faded into sobs as she collapsed into her older sister's arms.

The chanting grew as her father turned the pieces on the device. Kai began to convulse and blood dripped from his nose.

" _Kai_!" she screamed as her brother vanished in a burst of light.

A sudden hush fell over the clearing. Her father's face was grim but not remorseful. It took her a long time to realize Jo was speaking to her, "...It's over. He was dangerous, Liv, we're safe now."

" _You_ _knew_ ," she hissed, pushing her away.

"Liv—"

"Get away from me," she stood, running as fast as she could from the clearing, from Jo and her father, people she would never again see as family.

That was the first time she had felt hate for her coven, that hatred had only grown over the years.

Somehow Luke and her were both alive past their twenty-second birthday. After the Other Side collapsed they had left Mystic Falls, Luke hadn't known why Liv insisted on Beacon Hills but he hadn't argued.

And tonight Luke thought she was at a party, he would be pissed if he found out what she was actually doing, but she was too determined to worry about it. This was her first and possibly last chance.

There was an unbalance in nature, Liv didn't know what had caused it and she didn't particularly care.

She looked down at the brass device in her hand, she had read every book the coven had on it, hopefully it would be enough.

The woods around her changed, the trees thinned and suddenly it was in front of her. The Nemeton.

For a moment she stood in awed silence, forgetting for just a second why she was there. Then, shaking herself out of her daze, she set the device in the center of what was left of the ancient tree.

"Let's do this," Liv muttered to herself, she swallowed her nerves, closing her eyes and began the spell.

The wind picked up, howling through the trees. She didn't bother to push her hair out of her face, too absorbed in her task to take notice of the minor discomfort.

Blood dripped from her nose as she put the entirety of her magic into the spell. She raised her voice over the screaming of the wind. Manipulating the strange rift in natural magic she pushed her energy into the Nemeton.

The air stilled, the device sat unmoved, and Liv was still alone.

No. " _No_!" she screamed in rage. She had done everything, _everything_ , she was supposed to. It should have worked! It should have—

A glow suddenly came from the Nemeton. Not the burst of light like the kind that had taken her brother in the first place, this was softer, like the glow of fireflies.

And then, she wasn't alone.

Kai sat up slowly, he looked at the Nemeton he was seated on confusedly for a moment then up at her.

A slow grin curved his lips, "Congrats, Liv Parker, you have won sister of the year."


	21. This Is a Wild Game Of Survival

•

 **"Those who escape hell however never talk about it**

 **And nothing much bothers them after that."**

 **Charles Bukowski**

Scott hadn't planned on going to the party, but Malia wanted to and no one else from the pack was going to be there, so he agreed to go with her.

It took awhile to notice how strange she was acting. She stumbled over to him, he almost fell as she practically collapsed against him. "I don't feel good," she mumbled.

"Oh, okay," he looked down at her drowsy expression. It seemed like she was drunk, but that just wasn't possible... he glanced down at the cup in her hand. "Malia, how much of that have you had."

"A lot," she said miserably, "You told me I could."

She pushed her drink into his hands, diving for the nearby window, she threw up. When she was finished she slid down the wall, groaning with discomfort.

"Malia what does it taste like," he asked, looking at the dark liquid in her cup.

"Like puke, dumbass."

"No, the beer," Scott said.

"Like beer... I think. It burned a little, isn't alcohol supposed to do that?"

Scott brought the cup to his mouth, sipping the drink and immediately spit it back into the cup.

"Scott!" Malia complained.

"Don't drink that," he emptied the cup out the window.

Scott glanced around. Oh... that couldn't be good. Damon stood across the room, staring blankly into space, beer in hand.

Scott pushed through the crowd, stopping in front of the friend of a friend of a friend, "Hey, so, are you sure you should be drinking so much?"

The man stared at Scott like he'd lost his mind. "Yes, get lost Cub Scout." he started to walk away.

Scott couldn't let him drink that, who knew what kind of hallucinations he would get, or how he would react to them. "Okay, but, uh— Ah, screw it. I know you're a vampire! Or a werewolf! Or _something_!" he knocked the cup out of Damon's hand. "Whatever you are, you can't drink that."

The other man was silent just long enough for Scott to start regretting his outburst.

"What's in it?" he finally asked.

"Wolfsbane," Scott told him, it had taken a long time for him to recognize the almost nonexistent taste of the stuff.

"I'm not a werewolf."

"Yeah, that doesn't matter, it effects everyone, even humans."

"So anyone who's had a drink tonight will be effected?" his voice was calm but there was an intensity in his eyes.

"Yeah, it starts as feeling weak then goes on to hallucinations sometimes."

"Damn it," he turned on his heels and marched into the crowd. "Stefan! Elena! Bennett!"

* * *

Liv launched forward and threw her arms around her brother.

"Did you go through all this trouble to suffocate me?"

She shoved him away, "Shut up." Liv couldn't bring herself to sound annoyed with him, a stupid grin glued to her face.

"Geez, Liv," Kai said, "You're all grown up."

"You've been gone a long time," she said, her smile lost some of its brightness.

"Yeah, you're probably like married, or you own a lot of cats."

Liv shook her head. "Come on, before I send you back to where you came from."

"Uh, yeah, that won't work, I've heard hell is terrible this time of year." Kai stood from the Nemeton.

Liv grabbed the Ascendant from the Nemeton and shoved it into her bag. She would figure out how to destroy it later.

"Come on, loser," Liv threw her arm around her brother, "I'm tired, and hungry. Oh! We should stop at that weird retro pizza place before we go home."

He raised his brows. "Define 'home'?

"Small house I'm renting at the edge of town," Liv told him as they made their way back towards her car.

"You make enough to rent your own house?"

"Me, and Luke," she added without looking at him.

Kai stopped walking. "Luke?"

She arched a brow. "Really thought I'd go through with the Merge after everything they've done?"

"But he hates me!" Kai whined.

Liv rolled her eyes. "No, he doesn't, he'll be totally psyched to see you."

* * *

Lydia felt her panic spike with her heart rate as she heard her cousin's voice. Now not only would she die but so would someone she loved, and she had thought the situation couldn't get worse.

While she was distracted by Caroline's appearance Jennifer pushed her forward and she fell, tumbling down the small incline they had been on. Pain shot through her ankle, and she quickly found it would no longer support her weight.

Lydia watched helplessly as Jennifer turned her attention to Caroline.

"If it isn't the corpse blonde," she smiled and Lydia felt her stomach turn.

Caroline's face contorted, black veins webbed across her face as her eyes turned blood red. Her lips pulled back to show fangs to rival Scott's. If it was anyone but Jennifer Lydia wouldn't have doubted her.

As her features shifted Lydia felt a shift in the air, like a ripple of death coming from her cousin.

"You picked the wrong family to screw with," she growled.

Before Lydia could warn her Caroline bolted forward, Jennifer threw her hands out and an unseen force hit Caroline. She fell flat on her back but didn't stay down long.

"Caroline, stop!" she shouted.

She didn't listen, rushing at Jennifer again. Jennifer sidestepped easily, grabbing her arm and pushed her down the hill, Caroline crashed to the ground next to Lydia.

"Stop," Lydia hissed.

"You should listen to her, Caroline," Jennifer said, she looked down at the knife she had dropped, but instead of picking it up she reached behind her and pulled a gun out of the waistband of her jeans. "Wooden bullets are a pain to make, but better safe than sorry."

Jennifer raised the gun, aiming it at Caroline.

* * *

Hayley left the building, her mind raced with the new information. So preoccupied with her own thoughts she didn't notice him until he was next to her.

"I'm going to get you a bell," she told him.

"Lovely," was that sarcasm? "How did your brother receive the news that you're still among the living?"

"He wasn't there," Hayley said, she added offhandedly, "My murderous uncle was though."

"Murderous?" Elijah questioned.

"Yeah," she said, "you'd probably get along great."

"You're angry with me," it was a statement more than a question.

"No," she said dryly, "I love having a stalker."

Taunting an Original wasn't the smartest thing to do, but after spending the day with her crazy relative she didn't have the patience to deal with him too.

She wasn't sure what she expected him to do, but she certainly hadn't expected the amused smile he gave her.

"I hate vampires," Hayley mumbled under her breath.

"Maybe one day that won't be so," Elijah said. "While I am already quite certain of your answer I can't leave without asking—"

"No," she said.

"I expected as much," he nodded a goodbye before disappearing back to wherever he had come from.

She shook her head. Maybe she should have been grateful instead of annoyed, he could have dragged her back to the Nemeton and slit her wrist. But, nope, she was just annoyed.

* * *

It took Lydia a long moment to process what had happened. The gun fell out of Jennifer's hand as she reached up to touch the arrow that had sprouted from her chest.

Argent, Lydia thought with relief.

But it wasn't Argent that stepped forward as Jennifer fell. It was a man a few years younger, no one Lydia had ever seen before.

"Ric," Caroline breathed, slumping against the ground in relief.

"Who's the crazy bitch?" the man asked, ripping the arrow out of Jennifer's body.

He walked over to them, helping up Caroline before he offered Lydia help. She looked at him wearily but took his hand and allowed him to help her stand.

"Who are you?" Lydia asked. Not another vampire, she hoped silently.

"Alaric Saltzman," he held out his hand, "I think I have you in my history class."

* * *

"He can't stay here," Luke said adamantly, crossing his arms as he glared at Kai who was seated on the counter in the kitchen.

"He's our brother," Liv hissed, they stood in the living room adjacent to the kitchen, argueing quietly.

"He's a sociopath!" Luke whisper yelled.

"A high functioning sociopath." Liv paused as a thought occurred to her for the first time. "You believe dad's bullshit paranoid stories, don't you?" she accused.

"I know you don't want to believe it, but sometimes he's right," Luke said, "I'm not saying he was the best father or anything, but it makes sense. Kai was angry and felt cheated—"

"He was cheated," Liv said vehemently. "Kai was one of the first born Gemini twins. It was his birthright, and our father took that from him."

"Kai was gone the night Theo died," Luke reminded her, as if that proved something.

"Theo was the idiot that got blackout drunk in the basement of that house," Liv growled. "Faulty wiring, that was the police report. What do you think, huh? The cops were in on it too?"

"Liv..."

"And I was with him the night Joey died!" she continued.

Liv knew her brother didn't entirely believe she was telling the truth. But she was, she remembered that entire night with painful clarity. Liv had mentioned she wanted a smoothie, and Kai, being the impulsive goofball he was, jumped up from his chair at his desk and yelled "Midnight smoothie trip!" before he grabbed his keys and ran out to the new car he had spent four years saving for.

They had gone to the closest all hours diner only to find out they, in fact, did not serve smoothies. Instead they had ordered milkshakes and gorged themselves on crispy fries. It had been a nice night, for a little while she had felt like a normal teen, having fun and teasing her brother over the girl he liked in their coven. For a blissful little while, she felt perfectly carefree.

And then they had gone home, and her life changed. Police cars were in front of the house, blue lights casting sinister glows around the dark yard.

"He would never hurt any of us," Liv said quietly, the memories of that night making her heart ache.

Luke sighed, marching into the kitchen where Kai was stuffing pretzels in his mouth. "You're sleeping in the basement room," he told him impassively.

"Why do I get the feeling you're going to lock the door and set the house on fire?" Liv and Luke both paused. Kai looked back and forth between his siblings, "Too soon?"

Luke turned to her, "You're right, he's just a saint."

Her brother brushed past her and left the house, slamming the door after him. Childish much? She rolled her eyes.

"Come on," Liv nodded to the door that led to basement, "It's really not a bad room."

* * *

Erica hadn't been able to quell her hunger despite eating practically nonstop since the night before. She glanced up at Argent, who was looking at her oddly, and realized at some point she had dropped her fork and started eating with her hands.

"Sorry," she muttered.

When Isaac had brought her to the Argent's house she had been weary considering the last time she had been there she had been tied up and tortured with electricity. But Argent hadn't even asked for an explanation when Isaac walked in with a just back from the dead girl, just offered her food and the guest room to sleep in.

Isaac had promptly ditched her, telling her vaguely that he had something to do.

"Thanks for making this by the way," she said.

He nodded. "If you don't mind me asking, how...?" he gestured at her.

"I don't know," she said, "I just woke up in the woods and found Isaac."

"Isaac was just wandering around the woods?" his tone held no accusation, but it wasn't filled with belief either.

"He was messing with a transmitter," she explained.

He nodded again seeming satisfied with her answer.

Erica heard the door opened and Isaac wandered into the kitchen. "Has everyone been getting along?"

"Where were you?" she demanded.

"I asked first," Isaac grabbed plate from the cabinet. It was still odd to her how comfortable he was in the hunter's house, walking around like he owned the place.

"Yeah. Where have you been?"

"Had a talk with Stiles," Isaac shrugged.

She narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking to Stiles about?"

"None of your business," he dropped into the chair next to her.

She glared at him.

"Oh, good news by the way, the body they found in the woods was misidentified, and, in fact, did not belong to the missing person Erica Reyes."

She stared at him a long moment. "I can go home?" she breathed in disbelief.

"Yup, but we're going to have to think of a convincing story to explain where you've been these past few months."

Erica huffed a shocked but happy laugh as Isaac smirked, clearly pleased with himself.

* * *

Davina stared at her phone as it buzzed, another missed call from Kol. Anger suddenly washed over her. Stupid, lying, no good... "What?" she hissed into the phone.

"You haven't been answering my calls."

"I don't want to talk to you."

"You can't ignore me forever," he said.

"Sure I can," she said, picking at the red quilt on the bed.

"I told you I was turned a long time ago," he defended himself.

"You didn't tell me you're one of the first vampires to ever exist!"

"Because it's irrelevant!"

She sat up from her bed, she had been angry before now she was seething in rage. "Irrelevant? I know what people say about you're family—"

"What, that we're all sociopathic maniacs who kill constantly and regret nothing?"

"Yeah, _that_ ," she spat.

"It's all true, I'm not going to deny what I've done if that's what you're waiting for," Kol said, "But it in no way changes how I feel about you."

"Marcel told me about you, all of you, but you specifically, you were undaggered for what? A few weeks, you massacred anyone unlucky enough to encounter you."

"Yes, I've thinned out the rabble quite a bit over the years," he said. The callousness in his voice was so different from what she had come to expect from him.

"How long until that's me?"

"What?" The screech of tires came through the speaker followed by the muffled sound of Kol shouting some colorful words, his voice was clear when he spoke again, "Until what's you?"

"Eventually I'll just be one more on your body count," she said quietly, scared her voice would break if she spoke any louder.

"Davina, darling, that's not going to happen."

"Why?" she demanded. "Or should I just take your word for it?"

Kol sighed, swearing under his breath. "I'm almost to your place, we need to talk about this."

"I don't have anything left to say to you."

"Well I have some things I'd like to say to you," he snapped. "I'll be there in ten minutes."

"I'm not inviting you in."

"I don't care, I'll yell it from the yard if you insist, I'm sure the neighbors won't mind."

"Screw you."

"That would be a high point of the day," he hung up before she could think of a reply.

* * *

Elijah looked at the Nemeton, it had taken longer to find this time for whatever reason. He pulled a knife out of her jacket pocket and closed his hand around it, pulling the blade across his palm.

He held his hand out before the cut could close and let his blood drip onto the ancient tree.

Finding himself in the brightly lit room was less disorienting when he expected it. He didn't hesitate this time, he walked forward and put his hand on the Nemeton.

Early morning light fell across the bed. Dark hair was fanned out over the white pillows but the blanket blocked his view, he smiled at the sight, then grabbed the edge of the duvet and pulled it from the bed.

"Elijah!" she complained, pulling a pillow over her head to hide from the sun.

"It's almost nine," he informed her.

"Saturdays are for sleeping," she threw the pillow at him.

He caught it and tossed it back onto the bed. "I thought Saturdays were for eating, and watching television," he said, "I'm beginning to believe you're simply making it all up."

She grinned at him. "Come here," she patted the place next to her on their bed.

He laid down, and she immediately nestled against him, resting her head on his shoulder. He set an arm around her shoulders, his other hand covered her hand on his chest.

"We can't stay in bed the entire day," he said though he made no attempts to move.

"Why not?"

"Have you never heard the saying 'idle hands do the devil's work'?"

She caught him by surprise when she cupped the back of his neck and pulled him into a searing and torturously slow kiss. He smiled as their lips parted. "See? Your morals are already waning."

Her laughter filled the room, hearing that sound alone made his day brighter, actually, that was a gross under appreciation; the sound of her laughter brightened his whole damn world.

He had a sudden vague recollection of his world before her, blood, death, and endless deception, but it all seemed very far away now. Utterly unimportant compared to the woman laying next to him.

She raised her brows. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He brushed her hair back, studying her face with reverence. "Because I absolutely adore you, Hayley."

Shadows fell over her, obscuring her features. He looked to the sliding glass door that had been closed moments ago, a shadow figure drifted behind the curtains, the light was quickly being sapped from the happy scene.

"Stay here," he said, moving away from her.

"No, don't," she grabbed his arm.

"I'll be right back," he promised her vacantly as the darkness growing in the threshold gained his full attention.

"Elijah, please," she pleaded even as her grip loosened, "Just come back to bed."

He didn't answer this time, he walked forward, grabbing the edge of the curtain and pulled it open.

The hospital hall seemed especially cold as he ran towards operating room. He stopped to ask the nurse which room she was in, a doctor walked up to him with a grim look. "Are you," he glanced down at the form on his clipboard, "Elijah Mikaelson?"

"Yes," he said hurriedly. "How is she, and the baby?"

"It was necessary to perform an emergency Cesarean section, the baby is in intensive care but she appears to be healthy and is stable condition."

"The mother?"

The doctor looked hesitant, "The child was our first priority, we attempted to operate, but the internal bleeding was extensive..." he sighed, genuine regret in his eyes as he spoke again, "She didn't make it."

He said something else but Elijah didn't hear him, four words was all it took for a thousand years of composure and self control to crumble. He slid to the floor, staring at the white tiles of the floor. He had promised her that he would protect her, looked her in the eye and gave her his word. And now, she was dead.


	22. Through The Night and Back Again

•

 **"The afternoon knows**

 **What the morning never suspected."**

 **Robert Frost**

"Damn it, Davina! At least open the door."

Davina sat on the wood floor, staring at the door in front of her in silence as she listened to his voice getting more and more irritated.

"Don't ignore me!"

"I told you, I don't want to talk," she said quietly, knowing he would be listening.

"Darling," Kol's voice dropped to the deep lull she was used to, "you're turning this into a bigger deal than it is."

Davina shot up from the floor and marched to the door, wrenching it open. "I'm making this a big deal because it is! You lied to me."

"I didn't lie," he braced his hands on either side of the door, "I just withheld certain information."

"That's the same thing," she growled.

"Is it?" Irritation crossed his face. "In that case, let's talk about your prevarication, shall we?"

She crossed her arms. "And what's that?"

"I don't know, harvest girl," he tilted his head as he watched her reaction, "What is that?"

She stared at him. Was that a threat? If the coven found out she was here... But he wouldn't, would he? Oh, she just didn't now anymore. "How...?"

"Believe it or not I do actually prefer to know something about the people I invite into my bed."

"Shocking," she smiled coldly.

"Harvest witch of fire," he ignored her snide comment. "I was surprised to hear the Harvest was left unfinished, bit of a risk, don't you think?"

She shrugged. "No more than letting a psychotic maniac into my bed."

"Technically," he grinned, "you let yourself into mine."

She glared at him.

"Oh, come on, darling," he said, "I don't want to fight, especially when there's so many better things to do."

He clenched his jaw, the doorframe creaked as his grip tightened. She was impressed he managed to stay standing, she knew how badly her magic could hurt someone.

She stopped the migraine, and Kol's shoulders slumped in relief.

"You really need to learn when to shut up," Davina said, hoping the slight regret she felt for causing him pain didn't show.

"I've been told," he muttered.

"I hope this time the lesson sticks," she said, "Now get off my porch."

"Please," Kol's imploring tone kept her from slamming the door in his face, "is there really no way we can get past this?"

"You lied, or withheld truth, but whatever you want to call it I can't trust you anymore."

"Let me prove you can."

Shut the door, she thought, just shut the door and let him walk away. "How?"

"I'll tell you everything."

She raised her brows. "Everything?"

* * *

Bonnie stood in the empty room trying to get her bearings. Oh, she was going to be sick, she leaned against the wall and breathed deeply.

"Bonnie," the voice was soft and indistinct at first, and then it came again, right beside her, "Bonnie..."

She looked up at the smiling blonde that stood in front of her.

"Lexi?" It couldn't be... "You can't be here."

"Why?" her smile faded. "Because you left me to rot on the Other Side?"

"No," she shook her head, "No, Lexi, I tried, I swear, I tried. I kept the door open as long as I could, but I... I just couldn't take it."

"So you chose your own life over mine," she said.

"No," tears began to blur her vision, "I just wasn't strong enough to keep the connection."

Lexi huffed a humorless laugh, "What else is new?"

She shook her head, guilt and confusion making everything she said even harder to understand. "What..." she took a shuddered breath, "What do you mean?"

"Let's see, I ended up God knows where because you weren't strong enough to finish what you started, Jeremy died because you let yourself be controlled."

"Stop," Bonnie gasped out.

"You couldn't even save Elena, no, John had to do that by giving up his life, because _you weren't strong enough_ ," Lexi snarled.

"Stop!" Bonnie yelled.

"Jenna is dead because you decided stopping Klaus was more important than saving her life, and then you couldn't even do that," she continued, looking at Bonnie in disgust, "Pathetic."

Bonnie slid down the wall, closing her eyes as tears rolled down her face. "Please, just stop."

"Even Grams," her voice softened but these words cut the most, "If you had been strong enough to do the spell on your own—"

"Stop!" Bonnie screamed, throwing out her hand and threw Lexi against the opposite wall. Except it wasn't Lexi who lay groaning on the other side of the room. "Damon?"

"No shit, Bennett," he stood and glared at her. "What was that even for?"

"I... I thought..." It was finally happening, she was going crazy.

"You were seeing things, weren't you?" he walked over to her and helped her up.

"Yeah," she nodded, her thoughts began to clear as she realized it hadn't been real.

"Seems to be going around," he nodded towards the door. "Still need to find the others, and you clearly aren't stable enough to be left alone, so..." he headed for the door and pulled her along with him.

* * *

Kol watched uncertainty flicker across her face. She looked about to agree when a car pulled into the driveway, screeched was a better term actually. The door slammed and if it wasn't the person to blame for the whole mess.

"Marcellus," he held his hands out with a cold grin, "can't say I'm pleased to see you."

"Get away from her," he marched up the walk to the porch. Marcel brushed past him to stand right at the barrier at the entrance of the house. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, her hard demeanor softened considerably at the other man's appearance.

Jealousy burned through his chest, the nature of their relationship had yet to be clarified. "Yes, so as you see, your presence isn't required."

Marcel wheeled on him, "Shut your mouth, Mikaelson. I don't know what game you thought you were playing, but it's over now."

He smiled as his rage spiked. "Is that right?"

"Yeah," he stepped forward as if he thought himself menacing, "that's right."

* * *

Scott found Elena in the backyard, she stood at the edge of the swimming pool, light from the water reflected eerily over her face. "I tried," she said quietly.

Scott wondered if she was talking to him, but her distant gaze didn't leave the water.

"Elena," he spoke softly, worried what she would do if he startled her.

"I wanted to be good," she told no one in particular, "I tried so hard."

Okay, the hallucinations had obviously started already. "Elena, do you know where you are?"

"I'm sorry, dad," she sniffled.

Oh... "It's okay," he moved forward, not sure if she could drown or not, and really not wanting to find out. "You're a good person," not that he really knew her or anything... "How about, we go back inside and find Damon or Bonnie or someone?"

Pain filled her eyes as she looked up at him, and Scott knew he wasn't hearing him at all. "I know he's not a good person, but he loves me," tears started to streak down her face, "Isn't that what you always said? That you'd love anyone as long as they loved me?"

"Elena," he stepped forward as she began to shake her head, her long hair falling in her face.

"I'm sorry, I thought I could be good, that it wouldn't matter what I've become," she looked back to the water and when she spoke again her voice was dead, "but it does, it always will..." she pulled something from her pocket and Scott saw the metal handle on the thin, sharp piece of wood glint from the pool lights as she brought it to her chest, just over her heart.

"No. Okay? _No_ ," he stepped closer, keeping his eyes on the weapon in her hand, "I get it, you had this life you wanted, then suddenly it all changed and you're something you never thought you'd be. But just because you can't change what you are doesn't mean you can't be better, it doesn't mean you can't be good."

"I'm a monster," she said, but her hand began to waver. At least she was listening.

"Yeah," he agreed, taking another step forward, "but can I tell you something I've learned?" she looked up at him slowly and her eyes focused on his, "Not all monsters do monstrous things."

She stared into his eyes for a moment, like she was searching for proof that his words were sincere in them. Then her hand fell to her side and Scott grabbed the stake from her loose grip. Her shoulders began to shake as she cried, she fell against him and he wrapped an arm around her, "I know," he murmured, "I know, it gets better, I promise you it gets better."

Scott tossed the stake into the pool, he watched it sink to the bottom, distorted by the water the handle seemed to glow. Someone would find it and throw it away later, but for now it just needed to be out of her reach.

* * *

Davina yelled at the two men, but they both ignored her and she was too scared to step out of the house. She could give them migraines, but Kol resisted that better than Marcel and she was scared he would hurt Marcel given the chance.

"Stop it!" she screamed as Marcel shoved Kol into one of the beams on the porch.

Kol moved lunged at him again but before any more blows could be exchanged they both dropped to their knees, holding their heads and growled in pain.

Alan appeared, a medallion held in his hands. He had been working late at the clinic for the past few nights, him coming home so late wasn't surprising. "If you need to kill each other I would appreciate it if you did it somewhere other than my front porch."

"Sorry," Davina told him meekly, noticing the damage they'd caused for the first time.

"I have the paper work you asked for," he pocketed the medallion and Marcel and Kol huffed in relief.

"Thank you," she said.

Marcel stood and shook his head. "I don't want you in school with this psycho running around."

"Oh, go fu—"

"Kol!" Davina cut him off, her face burned with embarrassment. She had been trying her hardest to be polite and well mannered around Alan, Kol hurling obscenities in front of him wasn't helpful.

Alan looked at Kol for a moment before he turned to Marcel. "I might be able to put your mind at rest."

Marcel looked hesitant. "What did you have in mind, doc?"


	23. All Tomorrows For Just One Yesterday

**A\N: I'm sorry this one took so long but here it is! Hope you guys like it, and thank you to GoddessDana and** andjelijanenic **for reviewing.**

•

 **"My best dreams and worst nightmares**

 **Have the same people in them."**

 **Philippos Syrigos**

Lydia stood with Caroline in front of the school. They still had a while before the bell rang, neither had slept much after the Jennifer incident so they had gotten up and to school early.

"We should..." Lydia trailed off as she saw Scott pull into the parking lot.

"What are you—?" Caroline broke off as she saw the girl get off the back of Scott's dirt bike— the dirt bike that Lydia adamantly refused to call a motorcycle— and walk with him towards them.

Lydia would ask later why Caroline looked like she had seen a ghost. "Who's this?" Lydia asked her friend as she flicked her hand at the girl.

"This is Davina," Scott said, "She's new, I was actually hoping—"

"I get that she's new," Lydia interrupted him, "I know everyone in this school. I meant who is she to you?"

"What?" Scott got that look like a confused puppy, "Deaton is helping her for a friend, and he asked me to take her to school because..." he looked at Davina, "You're boyfriend's a serial killer?"

"Sort of, but it's all really unnecessary, I can take care of myself."

Ingrate, Lydia thought irritably, and how was someone "sort of" a serial killer?

"As I was saying though," Scott continued, "I was hoping you'd show her around school?"

Lydia raised eyebrows and tapped the type of her new heel, "Why can't you?"

"I have a make up test in Chemistry," Scott said, seeming to finally pick up on Lydia's cold attitude.

"Uh-huh," Lydia glanced at the girl. She was pretty, all doe eyes and apple cheeks. She was adorable, and Lydia could not stand her.

"I really don't need a security detail," the girl, Davis or whatever, said.

"But Deaton said—"

"Marcel is just being paranoid, and the only way he'd agree to let me go to school here was if the pack agreed to hover."

 _Hover_? Lydia would have laughed in her face if it wasn't for the fact that nothing about this was funny.

Scott looked nervous, he wasn't one to argue and she seemed to have made up her mind. "But I really think—"

"I'll be careful," Davina said as she walked towards the front doors, "I'll tell them you didn't leave my side all day, promise."

Scott watched her walk away, "Okay, that... okay." he walked after her towards the school, which was a good idea, he probably wouldn't get a make up test for a make up test.

It was only after he walked away that Lydia realized why she didn't like the girl with a decent amount of shock. It wasn't that she didn't like her, it was that she didn't like her with Scott. Because, somewhere in her mind there was still the belief that Scott was already taken, by her best friend. But that wasn't true, not anymore.

* * *

That is way too easy, Stiles decided as he clicked out of the website that claimed lavender, sandal wood, and some Latin could raise the dead.

He glanced at his alarm clock, and saw the time. "Shit!" he jumped up from the chair and grabbed his shoes. After so long not sleeping, setting his alarm had become pointless, he was awake by the time he had to get up for school anyway. But today internet research had lasted longer than usual, and he was going to be late.

He ran down the stairs, pulling on his hoodie as he went and almost fell, he really needed to be more careful, that was like the third time this week.

"Stiles?" his father's voice called.

He paused his rush towards the door. "Dad?"

His father appeared from the kitchen, coffee in hand, wearing a t-shirt instead of his uniform. "Why aren't you at school?"

Honesty was not the best policy when he had already threatened to take away Stiles' computer four times. "... Why aren't you at work?"

"It's my day off," he said.

Stiles stared at him. "You have days off?"

"Yes I have days off. Why aren't you—?"

Stiles cut him off, he couldn't lie if the question was never asked. "Sorry, dad, can't talk, really have to get to school." Stiles turned on his heels and bolted out the front door, ignoring his father yelling after him about burning his laptop.

His Jeep, for what must have been the first time in months, started without protest.

Half the drive Stiles spent trying to figure out what he would say to Lydia. _I'm sorry for being an ass_? He doubted that would work, in fact, she would probably think he was being sarcastic and get even angrier. _I'm a pathetic sap and not talking to you daily makes it hard to breathe_? Yeah, the last shred of his pride refused that plan. _Sorry for implying you're a self-centered socialite who thinks everything is always about her, even though last year it would have been totally called for_? That, that would definitely end well.

Or maybe he should just fall on his knees and beg her overall forgiveness.

"Or I could just move to Canada and change my name," Stiles muttered to himself as he pulled into the school parking lot.

As it turned down he didn't have to look very far to find her. She came marching towards him the second he walked through the door. The crowd had the good sense to move out of her way. They hadn't talked much since that night at the hospital, and when they had it had been painfully civil.

So Stiles was grateful to see something besides placidity on her face, even if it was rage that blazed in her green eyes.

She stopped in front of him, her hands planted on her hips. "Stiles, what is wrong with you?"

He held up a hand. "Before you kill me, I wanted to apologize."

"Why didn't you tell me about this Davina girl?" she demanded.

"Hmm?" Davina? Stiles got the feeling he should know that name. "Oh! You mean the witch." Had he really forgotten that? Damn, maybe Coach was right and he did have ADHD.

She paused, her eyebrows arched in question. "Witch?"

"Yeah," he blew a breath out through his teeth, "Here's the thing."

* * *

Caroline had stayed late, using the school's library to study, and listen to Lydia complain about how she was not a supernatural babysitter. The parking lot was empty except for her car and a few of the teacher's.

She was unlocking her door when she saw his reflection in the car window. "Holy—!" she dropped her keys, snatching them off the ground and turned on him angrily. "You need to stop sneaking around, or swallow a clock so I at least hear you coming."

Klaus gave her a strange look. "Swallow a clock?"

"Ugh, I forgot you're like a billion, of course you wouldn't get a Disney reference."

"Are you referring to the butchered animated version of Peter Pan?"

"Butchered? I love that movie!" She had watched it so many times when she was younger her mother had thrown away the disk and claimed Tinker Bell stole it.

"Well, I'm going to avoid swallowing a timepiece all the same," he said with a smile. "If that's quite alright with you."

"Why are you here?" she asked, ignoring how adorable he looked when he smiled, he was always smirking but a genuine smile was rare from him.

"I came to see you, of course," he said.

"I'm busy," she told him. It wasn't even a lie, she had plans with Bonnie, Stefan, Lydia, and possibly some of Lydia's friends.

His smile faded. "Ah, I see, your momentary lapse in judgement has ended and you remember I'm the cruel monster that—"

Caroline grabbed the front of his shirt, her mouth crashed against his in a borderline violent kiss. It only lasted a moment before she pulled away to glare up at him. "You are completely ridiculous! Are you going to assume I'm angry with you every time I hang out with my other friends?"

"Friends?" he smiled subtly, his gaze flicked down to her lips and back to her eyes. "Is that what we are, love?"

She rolled her eyes. "Why do I even bother?"

"Because as much as you try to deny it," he said, stepping closer as he spoke, "I know you feel it too."

"And what exactly is 'it'?" she asked sardonically as she raised her eyebrows.

"Connection."

"Connection? Really, that's the best you can do?"

"Well, I'm sure I could come up with something more romantic, but as I recall the last time I attempted stereotypical romanticisms with you you threw something at me and ranted about how connecting with people was more important than pretty words." he raised eyebrows at her. "I suppose the lesson stuck."

Her indifferent demeanor broke as she laughed.

He stepped impossibly closer, brushing a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear, her laughter caught in her throat as his touch lingered. "I've missed you."

"I missed you too," she admitted impulsively.

He smiled, kissing her sweetly on the cheek before he disappeared in a blur.

 _What are you doing, Caroline?_ She thought, but despite her questioning over the wisdom of what she was doing she couldn't help but smile as well.

* * *

Fish. Who was the genius that decided to eat those things? Hayley leaned over the garbage can, nausea rolling her stomach.

"That's it, you're going home," Patrick said as he walked up to her. They had stopped serving food hours ago, the kitchen empty except for them.

"No. I'm fine, really," Hayley straightened, swallowing the sick feeling. Patrick had been nice enough to hire Hayley even though they hadn't talked since she was fifteen, she wanted to do well. "It was just... the smell from the leftover fish."

"You aren't fine," Patrick argued. "If you're sick you need to go home and rest. Danny can cover the rest of your shift."

"Is he even still here?"

"Go home, Hayley!" Danny called from outside the kitchen door, in the front room where she was supposed to be tending bar.

She couldn't afford to miss work, she was barely making rent on the crumby apartment she had found as it was. But, she looked at the clock on the wall, only twenty minutes left on her shift...

Another wave of nausea made the decision for her. "Okay. I'll come in early tomorrow."

"Hayley," Patrick gave her a warning look.

"I'm fine, it's probably just a twenty four hour bug or something," she said.

"Well, if you feel better tomorrow come in," he said, looking at her with concern. "But if you still feel sick—"

Hayley was already headed for the back door. "I'll see you tomorrow," she called over her shoulder, pausing to grab her jacket from the hooks.

When she was half way to her car her phone began to ring. She stooped and pulled her phone out of her pocket, an unknown number flashed on her screen. She accepted the call after a moment of hesitation. "What do you want?"

"I want a more polite niece," Peter said.

She shook her head as she started walking again. "How did you get my number?"

"Doesn't matter," he said, before she could argue that it _did_ matter he continued. "Derek is back."

"Does he know yet?"

"Yes, Hayley, he walked in the door and the first thing I said to him was 'Guess what? Another one of your sisters isn't as dead as we thought'."

"Another one?" Hayley said. "Damn it, Peter. Who else is alive besides you two?"

"Cora, she's kind of a bitch," he added in a mutter, "Seems to run in the family."

"Screw you, and tell Derek, because I'll be there tomorrow afternoon whether he knows I'm alive or not."

"Fine, O self proclaimed queen of the world." he hung up.

"Dick," she muttered as she pocketed her phone.

She really hoped that her remaining two blood relatives were better than Peter. Unfortunately she doubted she was that lucky.

* * *

Scott had showed up to the restaurant and found Lydia playing pool with Stiles. He was pleased to see the strange tension that had been between them was gone.

Lydia lined up her pool que and hit the ball, the shot set off a chain reaction that ended with only the solid colors and eight-ball on the table. Stiles sighed in defeat as Lydia lined up the last shot.

"I win," she said pleasantly as the eight-ball fell into one of the corner pockets.

"Best out of five?" Stiles suggested.

She pursed her lips as she considered it, then clicked her tongue. "No."

His friend pulled a few five dollar bills from his pocket and handed them to Lydia.

"Thank you," she singsonged as she walked off towards the bar.

Stiles turned to him. "She's bankrupted me."

Scott smiled. "Aren't you the one always saying to never bet against Lydia Martin?"

"I should really start paying attention to what I'm saying," he shook his head, dismissing the subject. "Oh, and by the way, Lydia isn't talking to you."

"Why?" It figured as soon as she stopped being angry at Stiles she would find a reason to be angry at him.

"You lied to her, you're just lucky you didn't bring—" Stiles glanced over his shoulder— "What the hell, dude?"

He looked behind him to see Davina walking towards them. "She wanted to come."

"You didn't have to tell her about it!"

"She was with me when you texted! I couldn't just ditch her."

Stiles disgusted look turned into a friendly smile as she came to stand next to Scott. It almost frightened Scott how easily his friend's entire demeanor could shift. "Hey, it's good to see you again."

"No, it's not," she said easily.

Stiles raised his brows, glancing between the two, his mouth a thin line. "Hmm?"

"Your aura, I can feel it," Davina said, not appearing too concerned about it.

"That's just... _insanely_ creepy."

"Marcel used to say the same thing," she muttered distractedly, her eyes scanned the crowd like she was waiting on somebody.

"Is Marcel the crazy stalker boyfriend?" Stiles asked with his usual delicacy and consideration for others feelings.

"No," Scott broke in. "He's Deaton's friend."

"Oh, right! That's the dude that saved you from the whole throat slashing bummer."

Scott gave him a look that said _seriously man?_ as well as words could.

Stiles raised one of his hands and shrugged.

"I got you nachos!" Lydia announced happily as she came back to the group, she faltered when she saw Davina, but only for the briefest moment before her bright smile returned. "Oh, hey, I didn't know you were coming."

"Yeah, Stiles was excited too."

Lydia took a deep breath. "I wanted to apologize actually, I was rude this morning."

Scott's eyes widened. Had Lydia just admitted to being wrong?

"It's fine," Davina said, her voice wasn't any warmer but her face had softened at the other girl's words.

"No, I was tired and stressed and took it out on you, and that wasn't fair of me. I thought maybe we could start over and just forget this morning?"

Davina smiled and Scott noticed for the first time how pretty she actually was. "Already forgotten."

"Do you play?" she nodded at the pool table beside them with a devious smile.

She shrugged. "A little."

* * *

Kol stared down at the amber liquid in his glass. None of it had gone as planned, Marcel wasn't any help but really Kol had sabotaged himself. The witch was supposed to be a tool, and he had let himself get attached, and in the end hadn't even gotten what he had wanted from her.

Elijah's bad temper had only fueled his, his brother had been snapping at him for minor things all day.

He had forgotten what it was like to want to be with someone this badly. Just seeing her or hearing her voice, that would be enough. Kol almost felt sorry about how often he had poked fun at Rebekah over her many relationships, was this how they all felt? This insatiable craving to be near the other person?

She would break first, he was sure of that. She would come to her senses eventually, and Kol would be there when she did, but he wouldn't make the first move. He wouldn't beg forgiveness for being who he was, especially when she hadn't told him some important details about her past as well.

Despite his resolve to wait the whole thing out he couldn't help but wonder if she felt the same ache in her chest as he did.


	24. Believer

•

 **"He is going to be the death of me,**

 **And I can't think of any other way I'd rather go."**

 **Madalyn Beck**

Lydia ignored Stiles all too pleased look as she shoved all the money she had won from him into Davina's hand.

She smiled sweetly at Lydia. "You're good competition."

"I don't hear that everyday," Lydia muttered.

She turned and caught sight of Caroline walking into the restaurant. She practically glowed as she ambled towards them. "Ooh, who has my little cousin all twitterpated?"

"None of your beeswax," she sing-songed, her eyes found Davina and her smile faltered for the briefest moment. Lydia remembered thinking to ask Caroline if she had met the witch before, but after her and Stiles lengthy conversation and overall reconciliation—after a multitude of awkward but sincere apologies from Stiles—and then studying for her AP English test the thought had been forgotten.

Lydia considered pulling her aside and asking her then but Scott had already started chatting happily with her, eager to make her feel as welcome as possible.

She tried to ignore the slight buzz in the back of her mind, the feeling that something was wrong, but she couldn't quite push down the worry. The vision of Caroline on the Nemeton flashed through her thoughts.

Something was going on, more than Caroline was telling, and Lydia fully intended to find out what it was.

* * *

As Freya began to regain consciousness she heard the machines first, the hum and beeps of hospital equipment. A voice that pricked at her memory spoke though she couldn't make out what they were saying.

Bright light filled her vision when her eyes finally fluttered opened. She could the shadow of a figure standing beside her. As her eyes adjusted to light the person came into focus. Freya's breath caught in her throat.

"Hello, big sister," Finn smiled at her.

Joy bubbled up in her at the sight of her brother, he was there, be was alive. Her happiness crashed when she realized what that meant. Finn was alive, the imbalance was getting worse, allowing more powerful supernaturals to come back among the living.

She had to right whatever wrong had caused the rift in the natural balance, before it was too late. "Finn," her voice was hoarse as she tried to speak. "Where— where are they?"

"Our siblings are fine," he assured her.

No, they weren't! Freya swallowed hard, shaking her head. "We have to warn them."

Concern began to show in his eyes. "I know, the door needs to be closed."

She nodded, relieved he understood what was going on. "We need to go, now." It was possible they were too late, she might have already found the wolf girl... Freya pushed away the thought, she couldn't think about what that would mean.

* * *

"That's ridiculous!" Lydia said as she and Stiles walked towards her front door. As usual he had insisted on seeing her home safely. "Marilyn Monroe was not a werewolf."

"Think about it!" Stiles continued animatedly. "She died under very suspicious circumstances."

"Not every mysterious death is because the person was supernatural," Lydia shook her head, "Do you think John F. Kennedy was one too?" she glanced over at him, her smile dropped when she saw his look. "Stiles, no!"

"It's possible!" he defended his conspiracy theory.

She shook her head. Honestly, for such a smart person he could say the dumbest things.

"Do you think Caroline was acting strange?" Lydia asked as she began to dig around in her purse for her keys.

"You mean besides being a blood drinking member of the undead?" Stiles shrugged. "No, not really."

"I'm worried about her," she admitted. Who knows what she had been through since turning? Lord knew Lydia's life had never been the same after her banshee powers surfaced.

"Because she's dating a psychopath?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

"I don't think she's dating him," Lydia corrected, walking into the house.

He sighed dramatically and she knew there was something sarcastic coming. "My mistake, her vampire friend with benefits."

She rolled her eyes. "Why do you have to make fun of the most dangerous people you can find?"

"I don't know," he said, "Bored, maybe?"

Lydia shook her head, shedding her jacket and heading upstairs, unsurprised when Stiles followed her. "But mostly, I think it's because nobody else is going to call them out on their shit."

" _You_ shouldn't call them out!" Lydia said as she swung open her bedroom door. She kicked off her heels, settling on the edge of her bed.

"Somebody has to!" Stiles said as he leaned against her vanity.

"Maybe somebody like Scott, or Isaac, or Argent even," Lydia suggested, "Pretty much anyone they couldn't snap like a twig."

"Hey! I held my own just fine," he said.

That time, but next time he might get seriously hurt, or... No, she couldn't even think that. "If you would learn to shut up maybe you wouldn't have to."

"I know how to shut up!" Stiles argued, "I just choose not to."

She pursed her lips. "How is that any better?"

He opened his mouth, but only blinked for a moment. "I... I don't have a good answer."

"Didn't think so," she stood, pushing him out of her room. "Goodnight, Stiles," she shut the door on him.

"Goodnight," she heard him say before he walked away.

* * *

The gash across Cora's side was finally healing after three days, the wolfsbane in her system slowed the process. They had made it to Colombia without incident, but when they had gotten to her villa just outside of Bogotá they had been there waiting. Hunters, though Derek was sure the woman and the men with her weren't Argents.

Eventually he would go see Argent and ask him about who those people were, but he was worried about leaving Cora alone. She had been acting strange, and he was sure it wasn't just the painful wound in her side. The look in her eyes had been nothing short of anguish as she watched the whitewashed building go up in flames.

Derek was tempted to ask her why she was so upset about losing the place, but his already stoic sister had been especially quiet and he didn't want to press a subject that would make her shut him out completely.

"I have great news!" Peter announced as he walked into the loft.

"Are you terminally ill?" Cora shrugged a hoodie on over her sports bra.

"First," he held up a finger as he addressed Cora, "That joke was in very poor taste," he turned to Derek. "Second, guess who's not dead?"

He sighed, another enemy back from the dead, that was just what he needed after the catastrophe they had just gone through. "I'm not playing guessing games. Who is it?"

"Andrea!" he exclaimed, then added less enthusiastically, "I think."

It took him a moment to realize which Andrea he meant. That wasn't possible. "She died years before the fire."

"But what if she didn't?"

"She did." he said dispassionately. Cora was alive, that alone was miraculous, for anyone else to have survived would be more than that, it would be unbelievable.

Peter crossed his arms, heaving a sigh at Derek's blatant disbelief.

Loud knocking came from the door. "Tell her that."

"You're early," Peter continued as Derek stalked past him to open the door. "I thought you were coming—" he broke off as he turned and saw who stood in the doorway.

"I was expected?" Kate arched a brow. "And here I thought this would be a surprise."


	25. Wolves At The Door

•

"The heart has its reasons

Of which reason knows nothing."

* * *

Cora lunged at the woman, finding only open space where she had stood seconds before, she whipped around to see Kate already stood across the apartment, in front of the large window.

Her brother's eyes glowed bright with anger. Her uncle had already shifted, growling lowly at the hunter. Strangely seeing them ready to fight made her rethink the situation, a hunter—an _Argent_ — walked into a fight with three wolves unarmed? From where Cora was standing it seemed like a bad move, which meant she had to be missing something.

Something like how quickly she had moved across the room... Cora thought about the arsenal of weapons in her home, none of which she had had time to save from the fire before a hunter had tried to slice her in two. Then for a moment she considered the cell phone in her bag, the number she hadn't called in years— but she needed a way to survive the night, and who knew where he was or if he would even pick up?

Kate held up her hands. "I didn't come here to fight, I just want to talk."

Peter opened his mouth, that was never a good thing. "About what?" Cora spoke before he could, ignoring the irritated look he shot her.

"The Argents and Hales have been at each other's throats for years," Kate said, pacing as she spoke, and Cora could see it, the unnatural grace in even the most simple movements that told Cora the woman was no longer human. "Don't you get tired of that? Constantly fighting just for the right to live in your home town?"

"Get to the point," Peter snapped. Cora's nails cut into her palm as she resisted the not so uncommon urge to punch him.

"Help me and you'll never have to worry about the Argents again."

Derek and Cora shared a look. Kate had been gone a long time, long enough not to know about the peace they had found with Argent. She glanced at her uncle and he seemed to have the same thought as her.

"How do we know for sure?" Peter spoke and for once Cora didn't try to stop him. "What's to stop you from killing us as soon as you get what you want?"

Kate spread her arms. "You'll just have to have a little faith."

Peter scoffed. "Faith is something we're all short on."

Cora tensed as Kate reached into her pocket. "I figured," she pulled out a piece of paper, yellowed with age. "That's why I'm offering this."

Her uncle's eyes cut upward before falling back to Kate. "And what, exactly, is that?"

"Immortality."

Cora looked closer at the paper, it was old but it couldn't be what she thought it was... How would Kate find that spell anyway? "How do we know that's real?" she said sardonically, effectively keeping the fear masked. "Are we just going to have to have faith?"

Kate ignored her. "I can make you invincible, I just need you to take care of someone for me."

Peter crossed his arms. "And who would that be?"

"Come on, I'm not stupid," she pocketed the supposed spell. "I'll tell you when we have a binding agreement."

"Binding?" Derek spoke up.

"The spell has two parts," Cora grit out. "Once you start the process you have to finish it."

Kate smiled, Cora wanted to slap the expression off her face. "Aren't we smart?"

Gold flared in her eyes. "Do you really think we would _ever_ —?"

"Let us think about it," Peter cut in as he stepped forward.

"Peter!" Derek and Cora both growled.

"Shut up," he growled back.

"Tell you what," Kate shrugged, "I'll give you until, say, tomorrow night?"

"Go to hell," Cora snapped.

"We'll be here," Peter said.

Kate flashed a smirk at Cora. "At least one of you still has the Hale charm." Then, in confirmation of what Cora already knew, Kate disappeared in a blur.

Kate Argent was a vampire, and they were screwed.

* * *

Downtown was busy, the stores and streets full of people even after dark. Davina watched her drink fizz as she waited for Marcel in the small restaurant.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Maybe Marcel had a good reason for being late.

"Hey," she answered with a smile. "I expect you have a good explanation for keeping me waiting?"

"I don't recall us having plans." The smile vanished from Davina's face. Not Marcel.

"Kol, I can't do this right now."

"Why? Whoever you're waiting for hasn't shown up yet," he said easily, but there was something in his voice... Not quite anger, not sadness.

"Fine," she said coldly.

"Before Marcellus made his dramatic entrance we were discussing the possibility of honesty between us. Would you consider that?" He sounded so terribly reasonable for a psychopath.

"I... I don't know if honesty would help anything." A part of her hoped it would, that it could even fix them. But in the still sane part of her mind she knew it would only be worse to know the specifics.

"It's worth a try," his voice softened as he added, "I miss you."

She didn't want to miss him. She shouldn't miss him. But, damn, she did. "You better not be wasting my time, Mikaelson," she warned softly

* * *

Cars were in the driveway, in the dim twilight lights glowed gold through the windows of the large house, and Finn could hear the slow pulse of undead hearts. No pretending they weren't home.

Without the IV pumping her full of fluids Freya quickly began to deteriorate, her skin becoming sallow and her breaths were coming in uneven pants. She swayed as they moved towards the front door.

Walking up the steps she stumbled, Finn caught her before she could hit the floor. She leaned heavily on him as they stood on the porch. He raised his hand, hesitated, then knocked on the door.

There was a silence, then the faint creak of floorboards and irritated muttering. A moment later the door swung open harder than necessary, but the irritation on Niklaus's face quickly shifted to shock.

Finn smiled blandly. "Hello, brother."

* * *

 _Thunk._ Another ball bounced off the frame of the net. Growling in frustration, Liam dropped his stick. Ever since he got thrown out of Devenford and sent to Beacon Hills High he had been off his game. He wouldn't make the team at this rate, much less first line.

"I've never played lacrosse, but isn't the point to get it _into_ the goal."

Liam turned to the bleachers to see the reason he had gotten expelled lounging across the metal benches. "Screw you, Raeken."

"That's not very nice," Theo tilted his head with an infuriating half smirk. "Then again, neither was breaking my nose."

Liam stalked to the net, snatching up the ball and marching back to where he left his stick. He picked up the stick, and set the ball in the grass in front of him.

"Remember, aim for the net."

Liam grit his teeth, scooping up the ball with his stick, and hurling it at the net. _Thunk._

A slow clap came from Theo as Liam headed once again to the net. "Nice shot, Dunbar!"

Liam grabbed the ball and lobbed it at Theo. Disappointed to see it miss him and bounce harmlessly back down the bleachers. Theo watched it indifferently then looked slowly to Liam. "Do I need to say anything?"

His shoulders slumped. "What are you even doing here?"

"You aren't the only one who needed to find a new school," Theo stood, throwing the ball back to him. "See you around, Liam."

* * *

A\N: a real update (yay!) It's short but I hope to update this story more often, I was really motivated when I got a new review even though I haven't posted a new chapter in forever. Thanks for reading. The quote is Blaise Pascal.


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